John Mikhail

Georgetown University Law Center

Carroll Professor of Jurisprudence

600 New Jersey Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20001

United States

SCHOLARLY PAPERS

42

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in Total Papers Downloads

35,485

TOTAL CITATIONS

64

Scholarly Papers (42)

1.

Universal Moral Grammar: Theory, Evidence, and the Future

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, April 2007, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 954398
Number of pages: 10 Posted: 02 Jan 2007 Last Revised: 08 Aug 2017
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 5,230 (3,544)
Citation 5

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moral cognition, moral intuition, moral grammar, universal grammar, universal moral grammar, deontic logic, poverty of the stimulus, Socratic method, trolley problem, battery, double effect, descriptive adequacy, act tree, Chomsky, Marr, Greene, Haidt, Sunstein, legal theory, intuitive jurisprudence

2.

Rawls' Linguistic Analogy: A Study of the 'Generative Grammar' Model of Moral Theory Described by John Rawls in 'A Theory of Justice.' (Phd Dissertation, Cornell University, 2000)

Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 766464
Number of pages: 388 Posted: 28 Jul 2005 Last Revised: 04 May 2009
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 3,539 (6,811)
Citation 23

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Rawls, Chomsky, Piaget, Kohlberg, Foot, Thomson, Hare, Singer, Nagel, Dworkin, moral psychology, metaethics, deontic logic, cognitive science, trolley problem, jurisprudence, moral grammar, human rights

3.

Moral Grammar and Intuitive Jurisprudence: A Formal Model of Unconscious Moral and Legal Knowledge

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MOTIVATION: MORAL COGNITION AND DECISION MAKING, D. Medin, L. Skitka, C. W. Bauman, D. Bartels, eds., Vol. 50, Academic Press, 2009, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 1163422
Number of pages: 74 Posted: 23 Jul 2008 Last Revised: 29 Dec 2008
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,867 (18,853)
Citation 1

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cognitive science, moral grammar, moral heuristics, intuitive jurisprudence, legal realism, legal formalism, appraisal theory, deontic logic, tort, battery, negligence, Hand Formula, calculus of risk, unconscious inference, Kant, Savigny, Brentano, Frege, Bentham, Mill, Goldman, Terry

4.

Aspects of the Theory of Moral Cognition: Investigating Intuitive Knowledge of the Prohibition of Intentional Battery and the Principle of Double Effect

Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 762385, Georgetown Law and Economics Research Paper No. 762385
Number of pages: 129 Posted: 27 Jul 2005
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,844 (19,238)
Citation 4

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Moral cognition, moral intuition, trolley problem, battery, double effect, linguistic analogy, universal grammar, moral grammar, Chomsky, Kohlberg, Piaget, Greene

5.

The Definition of 'Emolument' in English Language and Legal Dictionaries, 1523-1806

Number of pages: 159 Posted: 01 Jul 2017 Last Revised: 13 Jul 2017
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,574 (24,495)
Citation 3

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6.

Law, Science, and Morality: A Review of Richard Posner's 'the Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory'

Stanford Law Review, Vol. 54, p. 1057, 2002, Georgetown Law and Economics Research Paper No. 877011, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 877011
Number of pages: 72 Posted: 24 Jan 2006
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,504 (26,218)
Citation 4

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moral theory, legal theory, cognitive science, human rights, pragmatism, Quill, Glucksberg, Posner, Dworkin, Rawls, Chomsky, Thomson

7.

Chomsky and Moral Philosophy

The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky (J. McGilvray, ed., 2nd edition), Forthcoming
Number of pages: 17 Posted: 09 Apr 2016 Last Revised: 02 Jul 2017
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,436 (28,089)
Citation 1

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Chomsky, Plato, Cicero, Aquinas, Grotius, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Darwin, Wittgenstein, Williams, Kripke, moral competence, moral grammar, Universal Grammar, UG, UMG, mentalism, modularity, nativism, poverty of the stimulus, conscience, synderesis, conscientia, natural law

8.

Moral Grammar and Human Rights: Some Reflections on Cognitive Science and Enlightenment Rationalism

UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL ACTION, PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, Ryan Goodman, Derek Jinks, & Andrew K. Woods, eds., Oxford University Press, 2012, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 11-124
Number of pages: 40 Posted: 09 Sep 2011 Last Revised: 08 Nov 2012
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,428 (28,321)
Citation 1

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human rights, cognitive science, experimental philosophy, Enlightenment rationalism, moral grammar, international law, relativism, moral intuitions, Ignatieff, Rorty, Ryle, MacIntyre, Freud, Durkheim, Sumner, Benedict, Posner, Bork, Holmes, Chomsky, De Waal, Grotius, Aristotle

9.

The Poverty of the Moral Stimulus

MORAL PSYCHOLOGY, THE EVOLUTION OF MORALITY, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, ed., Vol. 1, MIT Press, Forthcoming, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 896388
Number of pages: 12 Posted: 19 Apr 2006
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,398 (29,241)
Citation 1

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moral cognition, moral intuition, moral grammar, universal grammar, nativism, innate, jurisprudence, crime, tort, contract, agency, human rights, Locke, Hume, Rawls, Chomsky, Fodor

10.

Moral Cognition and Computational Theory

MORAL PSYCHOLOGY: THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MORALITY, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, ed., Vol. 3, MIT Press, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 1029511
Number of pages: 17 Posted: 13 Nov 2007
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,170 (37,824)

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Marr, Greene, Haidt, Chomsky, Bentham, moral cognition, moral grammar, computational theory, trolley problem, deontic judgment, deontic logic, act tree, battery

11.

Rawls' Concept of Reflective Equilibrium and its Original Function in 'A Theory of Justice'

Washington University Jurisprudence Review, Vol. 3, p. 1, 2010, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 11-103
Number of pages: 31 Posted: 21 Jul 2011 Last Revised: 27 Jul 2011
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,141 (39,276)

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reflective equilibrium, legal theory, moral theory, law and psychology

12.

Review of Patricia S. Churchland, 'Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us About Morality'

Ethics, Vol. 123, No. 2, 2013, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 13-007
Number of pages: 3 Posted: 29 Dec 2012 Last Revised: 20 Sep 2014
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,129 (39,895)

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Churchland, Darwin, Hume, Aristotle, Plato, morality, nativism, epistemology, computation, rules, neurobiology, care, attachment, norms, genes, evolution

13.

Islamic Rationalism and the Foundation of Human Rights

PLURALISM AND LAW: Proceedings of the 20th IVR Congress, Arend Soeteman, ed., Global Problems, Vol. 3, pp. 61-70, March 2005, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 777026
Number of pages: 11 Posted: 05 Aug 2005
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,121 (40,314)

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Human rights, rationalism, nativism, empiricism, deontic logic, natural liberty, practical reason, Mutazilite, Abd' al-Jabbar, Hourani, Aquinas, Ockham, Suarez, Leibniz, Langdell

14.

Emotion, Neuroscience, and Law: A Comment on Darwin and Greene

Emotion Review, Forthcoming, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 11-26
Number of pages: 3 Posted: 14 Feb 2011 Last Revised: 26 Oct 2012
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 1,053 (44,157)

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emotion, neuroscience, law, intuition, computation, rules, crime, tort, battery, rape, murder, Darwin, Kant, Spencer, Greene

15.

Moral Heuristics or Moral Competence? Reflections on Sunstein

Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 557-558, 2005, Georgetown Law and Economics Research Paper No. 879827, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 879827
Number of pages: 2 Posted: 31 Jan 2006
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 947 (51,178)
Citation 4

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Sunstein, Rawls, heuristics, moral heuristics, moral competence, mental representation, trolley problem, cognitive science, human rights

16.

Is the Prohibition of Homicide Universal? Evidence from Comparative Criminal Law

Symposium, Brooklyn Law Review, Forthcoming, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 10-21
Number of pages: 20 Posted: 23 Mar 2010 Last Revised: 16 Apr 2010
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 849 (59,461)
Citation 7

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moral universals, homicide, comparative law, universal jurisprudence, cognitive science, anthropology, evolutionary psychology, justification, excuse, mens rea, intent, self-defense, necessity, insanity, duress, provocation, moral grammar, human rights

17.

Moral Intuitions and Moral Nativism

The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology (M. Vargas & J. Doris, Eds.), Forthcoming
Number of pages: 45 Posted: 15 Dec 2020 Last Revised: 25 Oct 2021
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 718 (74,293)

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moral intuitions, moral nativism, moral grammar, moral psychology, moral development, moral universals, cognitive neuroscience, legal anthropology, intuitive jurisprudence, deontic modality, empathy, altruism, Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Darwin

18.

'Plucking the Mask of Mystery from its Face': Jurisprudence and H.L.A. Hart

Georgetown Law Journal, Vol. 95, p. 733, 2007, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 978307
Number of pages: 47 Posted: 05 Apr 2007
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 694 (77,758)

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Hart, Lacey, Bentham, Austin, Devlin, Goodhart, Wittgenstein, Chomsky, Rawls, Ryle, Quine, jurisprudence, philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, legal positivism, empiricism, moral grammar, universal grammar, universal jurisprudence, human rights

19.

The Necessary and Proper Clauses

Georgetown Law Journal, Vol. 102, No. 4, 2014
Number of pages: 75 Posted: 18 Mar 2014 Last Revised: 20 Mar 2014
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 693 (77,758)

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James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, James Madison, Edmund Randolph, John Rutledge, necessary and proper, implied powers, inherent powers, enumerated powers, sweeping clause, Virginia Plan, Committee of Detail, Committee of Style

20.

The Constitution and the Philosophy of Language: Entailment, Implicature, and Implied Powers

Virginia Law Review, Vol. 101, No. 4, 2015
Number of pages: 41 Posted: 24 May 2015 Last Revised: 11 Jun 2015
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 541 (106,389)

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James Wilson, Charles Beard, James Madison, Gouverneur Morris, Paul Grice, constitution, implication, implicature, entailment, semantics, pragmatics, implied powers, enumerated powers, preamble, vesting clause, necessary and proper clause, sweeping clause, tenth amendment, originalism

21.

Two Types of Empirical Textualism

82 Brooklyn Law Review 461 (2021)
Number of pages: 28 Posted: 15 Dec 2020 Last Revised: 15 Mar 2022
Kevin Tobia and John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center and Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 412 (147,356)
Citation 3

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Textualism, Originalism, Bostock, Statutory Interpretation, Legal Interpretation, Experimental Jurisprudence

22.

Does Originalism Have a Natural Law Problem?

Law and History Review, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 361-367 (2021)
Number of pages: 7 Posted: 02 Jul 2021
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 392 (155,891)

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23.

The Mental Representation of Human Action

Cognitive Science, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 82 Posted: 03 Mar 2018 Last Revised: 02 Jul 2018
Sydney Levine, Alan Leslie and John Mikhail
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Rutgers University, New Brunswick and Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 336 (184,726)

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Moral Judgment, Act Trees, Moral Grammar, Human Action, Intention

24.

New Perspectives on Moral Cognition: Reply to Zimmerman, Enoch, and Chemla, Egré & Schlenker

Jersusalem Review of Legal Studies (Forthcoming)
Number of pages: 49 Posted: 17 Jul 2013 Last Revised: 10 Oct 2013
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 318 (195,837)
Citation 1

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25.

Scottish Common Sense and Nineteenth-Century American Law: A Critical Appraisal

Law and History Review, Vol. 26, No. 1, Spring 2008, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 1076702
Number of pages: 9 Posted: 19 Dec 2007 Last Revised: 25 Apr 2008
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 316 (197,216)

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Common Sense, Scottish Enlightenment, moral agent, legal responsibility, common law, medical jurisprudence, insanity, moral faculty, Thomas Reid, Benjamin Rush, James Wilson, David Hoffman, Francis Wayland, Noah Porter, Isaac Ray, Jeremy Bentham, John Austin, John Locke, Adam Ferguson

26.

Any Animal Whatever? Harmful Battery and its Elements as Building Blocks of Moral Cognition

Ethics, Vol. 124, 2014
Number of pages: 52 Posted: 03 Mar 2014 Last Revised: 06 Mar 2014
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 302 (207,066)
Citation 3

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27.

The Free Exercise of Religion: An American Perspective

EIN NEUR KAMPF DER RELIGIONEN? STAAT, RECHT UND RELIGIOSE TOLERANZ, Matthias Mahlmann and Hubert Rottleuthner, eds., Duncker & Humboldt, Berlin, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 18 Posted: 12 Sep 2007
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 282 (222,412)

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religion, religious liberty, free exercise, accommodation, Reynolds, Cantwell, Sherbert, Yoder, Smith, Lukumi, Islamic, Muslim, headscarf, laicite, RFRA, hybrid, free expression, neutrality, anti-discrimination

28.

The Original Federalist Theory of Implied Powers

Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 8 Posted: 19 Dec 2022
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 261 (240,484)

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Constitution, Federalist, Anti-Federalist, Preamble, General Welfare Clause, Necessary and Proper Clause, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, slavery, abolition, federal consensus, implied powers

29.

James Wilson, Early American Land Companies, and the Original Meaning of 'Ex Post Facto Law'

Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2019
Number of pages: 68 Posted: 25 Mar 2019 Last Revised: 26 May 2019
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 254 (247,202)
Citation 1

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30.

McCulloch v. Maryland, Slavery, the Preamble, and the Sweeping Clause

Constitutional Commentary (Forthcoming)
Number of pages: 18 Posted: 16 Apr 2021 Last Revised: 02 Jun 2021
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 252 (249,282)

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David Schwartz, McCulloch v. Maryland, John Marshall, slavery, Preamble, Sweeping Clause, Necessary and Proper Clause, ratification, amendments, abolition, national bank, United States v. Fisher, implied powers

31.

Knowledge, Belief, and Moral Psychology

Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Forthcoming)
Number of pages: 4 Posted: 28 Dec 2020
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 249 (252,301)

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32.

The Path of the Prerogatives

American Journal of Legal History (Forthcoming)
Number of pages: 23 Posted: 03 Jan 2023 Last Revised: 11 Oct 2023
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 247 (254,285)

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prerogative, Article II, enumerated powers, implied powers, William Blackstone, James Wilson, John Rutledge, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Thomas Jefferson, William Crosskey, Michael McConnell, Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, United States

33.

The Other Madison Problem

Univ. of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1691, 89 Fordham L. Rev. 2033 (2021)
Number of pages: 52 Posted: 22 Mar 2021 Last Revised: 11 May 2021
David S. Schwartz and John Mikhail
University of Wisconsin Law School and Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 241 (260,549)

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James Madison, Constitutional Convention, national legislative veto, federal negative, Federalist 10, extended republic, Vices of the Political System, federalism, imperium in imperio, Madison Problem, Father of the Constitution, Federalists

34.

Dilemmas of Cultural Legality: A Comment on Roger Cotterrell's 'The Struggle for Law' and a Criticism of the House of Lords' Opinions in Begum

International Journal of Law in Context, Vol. 4, pp. 385-393, 2009, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 1506242
Number of pages: 10 Posted: 15 Nov 2009 Last Revised: 18 Nov 2009
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 239 (262,619)

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human rights, civil liberties, religious freedom, discrimination, Shabina Begum, Edward Said, Lon Fuller, Patricia Williams, Islamic headscarf, autonomy, equality, orientalism

35.

Fixing Implied Constitutional Powers in the Founding Era

Constitutional Commentary (Forthcoming)
Number of pages: 10 Posted: 02 Dec 2019
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 223 (280,751)

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36.

The Federalist Constitution: Foreword

Univ. of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1699, 89 Fordham L. Rev. 1669 (2021)
Number of pages: 8 Posted: 12 May 2021
University of Wisconsin Law School, Stanford University, Georgetown University Law Center and University of Michigan Law School
Downloads 210 (297,092)

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Constitutional Law, Federalists, Legal History, Founding Fathers, Jeffersonian-Republican, Jacksonian-Democratic, Political Parties, Interpretation

37.

The 2018 Seegers Lecture: Emoluments and President Trump

Valparaiso University Law Review, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 51 Posted: 15 Jul 2019 Last Revised: 28 Sep 2019
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 198 (313,876)

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emolument, profit, gain, advantage, corruption, conflict of interest, foreign influence, Trump

38.

A Tale of Two Sweeping Clauses

Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 12 Posted: 13 Jul 2018 Last Revised: 29 Jul 2018
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 192 (322,837)

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39.

Holmes, Legal Realism, and Experimental Jurisprudence

The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Jurisprudence (forthcoming)
Number of pages: 26 Posted: 29 Mar 2024 Last Revised: 08 Apr 2024
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 178 (345,877)

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Holmes, Legal Realism, experimental jurisprudence, common law, intuition, legal rules, induction, unconscious inference, Karl Llewellyn, Max Radin, Herman Oliphant, Walter Wheeler Cook, Jerome Frank, David Marr

40.

Is the Constitution a Power of Attorney or a Corporate Charter? A Commentary on 'A Great Power of Attorney': Understanding the Fiduciary Constitution' by Gary Lawson and Guy Seidman

Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 34 Posted: 23 Jul 2019 Last Revised: 01 Oct 2019
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 172 (356,347)

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41.

Presumed Innocent? How Tacit Assumptions of Intentional Structure Shape Moral Judgment

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (Forthcoming)
Number of pages: 73 Posted: 10 Jul 2018 Last Revised: 17 Oct 2018
Sydney Levine, John Mikhail and Alan Leslie
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Georgetown University Law Center and Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Downloads 168 (363,691)
Citation 2

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moral development, moral cognition, moral grammar, theory of mind, intention inference, goal inference, presumption of innocence, prior knowledge, core knowledge, infant cognition, double effect, mens rea, trolley problem

42.

Review of Shaun Nichols, Rational Rules: Towards a Theory of Moral Learning

Philosophical Review (Forthcoming)
Number of pages: 4 Posted: 23 Jun 2022
John Mikhail
Georgetown University Law Center
Downloads 167 (365,603)

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Nichols, Plato, Hume, morality, moral rules, nativism, empiricism, moral grammar, statistical learning, poverty of the stimulus, crimes, torts