The Origins of the Moral Sense and the Role of Caring in Early Infancy

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to integrate, according to a phenomenological approach, the debate about the moral sense of the babies. Recent psychological investigations state that humans born equipped with a sense of morality. I especially refer to the results achieved by Paul Bloom (2013). If we assume that inborn moral beliefs are already existing in babies’ minds, we have to recognize babies as moral subjects and refuse the idea that infants are born “blank states”. The assumption that babies know right from good since the age of about six months, as Bloom assumes, asked to be theoretically founded. We need to clarify: 1) how the infant is able to make an early experience of good and 2) how this good properly is known. If a child is (naturally) acquainted with good, I argue that is properly the act of caring that allows the infant to assume that valuable content.

Keywords

• Senso morale
• Cura
• Infanzia
• Bene
• Fenomenologia