For Immediate Release
September 7, 2011

Media Contact:
Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9037

 

John Mikhail

WASHINGTON, D.C. - How do humans acquire the ability to make moral judgments? Is moral knowledge innate or explicitly taught? Is there a universal sense of justice?

Georgetown University Law Center Associate Dean John Mikhail tackles these questions in his new book Elements of Moral Cognition: Rawls’ Linguistic Analogy and the Cognitive Science of Moral and Legal Judgment (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

Drawing on similar proposals by Hugo Grotius and other founders of international law, Mikhail proposes that human beings may be born with an innate ability to make moral judgments, an idea analogous to linguist Noam Chomsky’s theory that the human brain is hard-wired with rules of language. Mikhail builds upon Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar to put forth the hypothesis that a universal moral grammar may be embedded in every human being, regardless of culture or upbringing.

In his analysis of the moral grammar hypothesis, Mikhail draws upon philosopher John Rawls’ comparisons between the rules of justice and the rules of grammar. Mikhail sets out to clarify the significance of Rawls’ linguistic analogy, take on some of the important scientific questions it raises about intuitions of justice and fairness, and explain how it can be used to help improve our understanding of moral and legal judgment.

Chomsky describes Mikhail’s book as "judicious, carefully executed and deeply informed" and says it "resurrects fundamental themes of traditional moral philosophy and Enlightenment rationalism, while showing how they can be cast as empirical science with far-reaching implications for political, social and legal theory. It is a most impressive contribution."

Gilbert Harman, Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton, says Elements of Moral Cognition is "the best account I have read of Rawls…Mikhail’s current work in this area as reported in his book is the most important contemporary development in moral theory."

And eminent primatologist Frans de Waal writes, "Finally, a book that compares our current knowledge of human morality against the idea of an inborn rule-based system, not unlike universal grammar. With great erudition, John Mikhail carefully discusses all of the steps needed to understand this linguistic parallel, adding a new perspective to the ongoing debate about an evolved moral sense."

Mikhail is associate dean for international and transnational legal studies at Georgetown Law. His research interests include torts, criminal law, constitutional law, international law, jurisprudence, moral and legal philosophy, legal history and law and cognitive science.

Mikhail received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Cornell University and was a lecturer and research affiliate in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After receiving his J.D. from Stanford, where he was senior articles editor of the Stanford Law Review and senior submissions editor of the Stanford Journal of International Law, he joined the law firm of Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett. He then served as a law clerk to Judge Rosemary Barkett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Mikhail has been a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School, a visiting junior scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, a teaching fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a visiting member of the law faculty of the University of Zurich. His research has been featured in numerous media outlets, and his publications have appeared in a wide range of scholarly journals.

 

About Georgetown University Law Center 

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law, and the faculty is among the largest in the nation. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body representing more than 60 countries.