People with serious mental disorders may understand morality after all, reveals a book by an ethics professor who pioneered research in a high-security hospital
AS A professor of ethics at King's College, London, Jonathan Glover is accustomed to using the Socratic method to help his students refine their moral beliefs by answering tough philosophical questions. The technique, which originated in ancient Athens, is often used in colleges and law schools. One place you don't typically encounter it, though, is in a high-security psychiatric hospital.
In the 1990s, Glover decided to take it to Broadmoor Hospital in the south of England. There he probed a common stereotype about psychopaths – that they lack a conscience – by discussing ethics with them. Those dialogues form the starting point for Alien Landscapes?, a wide-ranging philosophical ...
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