ABSTRACT
There are three groups of questions relevant to moral theory that cognitive science might hope to answer. The first of these concerns the cognitive materials deployed by moral judges or evaluators in thinking about moral matters. The second group of questions concerns hedonic states, which play a particularly crucial role in moral theory. The third set of questions concerns the motivational properties of human agents and the way they should be considered in appraising moral theories. The exemplar theory is particularly intriguing from the standpoint of moral theory, as Stephen Stich points out. The empirical study of empathy is relevant to all of these branches and subbranches of ethics. The primary ethical phenomenon, according to Arthur Schopenhauer, is compassion, which he characterized as the vicarious "participation" in the suffering of another. Most writers would agree that a satisfactory prescriptive theory should be firmly rooted in human nature.
