ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the extent to which a person’s cognitive capacity to have and respond to reasons, affective capacity to have and respond to emotions, and volitional capacity to express intentions in choices and actions together provide her with the normative competence to respond to moral reasons for or against certain actions. The standard theory of action runs roughly as follows. An agent has a desire to bring about a certain state of affairs. The limbic system is the emotional connection to the frontal lobes in the cognitive neocortex. While the emotions produced by this system cause a visceral response in the body, they do not automatically issue in action. Emotions are essential to moral agency. They enhance social cooperation by enabling us to recognize the needs and interests of other persons. Like beliefs, emotions seem to be the sorts of mental states that simply occur to us.
