Joshua Knobe Thought Experiment - Experimental Philosophy - Conundrum #experimentalphilosophy

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]As the receptionist keeps pens on her desk, administrative assistants are allowed to take the pens. Professors are not. One day, an administrative assistant takes a pen. A professor takes a pen, too. Later, the receptionist needs a pen, but there are no pens left.

[00:00:16]Who caused the problem? From a merely physical point of view, both people contributed. Both took a pen. Both actions helped produce the empty desk of pens. But people tend to say the professor caused the problem. Why?

[00:00:30]Because professor broke the rule. The assistant merely took a pen. Professor violated a norm. And suddenly, the norm breaker feels more like the cause.

[00:00:39]>> [music] >> Maybe morality is not merely interfering with the system. Maybe morality is part of the system.

[00:00:47]Maybe when we understand human action, we're not neutral observers first and moral judges second. Maybe we're moral interpreters the whole time from the beginning. So here's the question that Dobe leaves us with. When you judge another person, are you first seeing what happened and then adding morality, or is morality already changing what you're seeing in the first place?

[00:01:10]Are we persons as scientists or persons as moralists?