Wired To Be Immoral?

Jason Brennan ponders the limits of morality:

My worry here is that ought implies can, and it may well be that people can’t bring themselves to do certain things. Agency isn’t all or nothing. Just as some people might compulsively engage in certain behaviors that they cannot control, so many of us might have an equivalent inability to do certain things that morality might otherwise require. It’s not just that we are unwilling to these things, but that we are unable to be willing to do these things.

Of course, people are different. [Philosopher] Peter Singer is willing to give more to charity (not as much as he says he should, though) than most people, including me. But that doesn’t show that everyone could give as much as Singer. Everyone’s psychology is a bit different. Perhaps Singer is a few standard deviations to the right of the curve when it comes to psychological ability to give to others. Perhaps some other people quite literally cannot will to give. For them to give 50% of their income to charity is physically impossible, because their brains just don’t work that way. You might as well ask them to jump to the moon.