DISCUSSION
The Sheriff in Our Minds: On the Morality of the Mental
Volume 22, Number 3, September 2022, Pages 423–437
PDFAbstract
Many people believe that our thoughts can be morally wrong. For example, many regard rape and murder fantasies as morally wrong. In a provocative recent essay, George Sher disagrees with this and argues that “the realm of the purely mental is best regarded as a morality-free zone,” wherein “no thoughts or attitudes are either forbidden or required.” Ultimately, Sher argues that “each person’s subjectivity is a limitless, lawless wild west in which absolutely everything is permitted.” Sher calls this view the Wild West of the Mind. I argue against Sher’s position. In section i, I summarize Sher’s view. In section ii, I criticize Sher’s argument for the Wild West of the Mind. In section iii, I outline additional objections to Sher’s view.
Copyright © 2022 Samuel Director
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
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