Psychedelics and moral psychology: the case of forgiveness

By examining extraordinary psychedelic experiences, particularly those that induce forgiveness, we can gain insight into ordinary moral life. This chapter argues that studying altered moral cognition reveals the importance of coherence and dissonance between thoughts and emotions in moral experience. It supports unconventional ideas about moral phenomenology and psychology, suggesting that transformative psychedelic experiences can inform our understanding of moral experience without claiming they are safe or effective for moral enhancement.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Several authors have recently suggested that classic psychedelics might be safe and effective agents of moral enhancement. This raises the question: can we learn anything interesting about the nature of moral experience from a close examination of transformative psychedelic experiences? The interdisciplinary enterprise of philosophical psychopathology attempts to learn about the structure and function of the ‘ordinary’ mind by studying the radically altered mind. By analogy, this chapter argues that we can gain knowledge about the everyday moral life by studying extraordinary experiences of altered moral cognition and experience. A specific class of cases is examined: experiences of forgiveness induced by psychedelics. It is argued that close attention to such experiences reveals the importance of thought/emotion coherence and dissonance in the moral life and vindicates some heterodox ideas about moral phenomenology and psychology.