We extend “4E” cognition to moral psychology. Since acting on affordances typically requires expertise, moral expertise, or virtue, is needed to act on moral affordances and to shape moral agency. Ethical rules and codes, often selected through a process of constraint satisfaction, are also involved in the detection and selection of moral affordances. We argue that individuals who act prudently possess moral expertise that allows them to remain in the “metastable zone” between mind and world, giving them an optimal grip on moral affordances and permitting wise judgement and action. We show how this can be explained via a noncognitivist, affordance-based account of the virtue phronesis (prudence). Our overall approach creates space for reciprocally causal accounts and prospection in explanations of human moral activity.

我们将“4E”认知扩展到道德心理学。由于根据可供性采取行动通常需要专业知识、道德专业知识或美德，因此需要根据道德可供性采取行动并塑造道德能动性。通常通过约束满足过程选择的道德规则和规范也涉及道德启示的检测和选择。我们认为，谨慎行事的个人拥有道德专业知识，使他们能够保持在思想和世界之间的“亚稳态区域”，使他们能够最佳地把握道德启示，并允许明智的判断和行动。我们展示了如何通过非认知主义的、基于可供性的美德 phronesis（审慎）解释来解释这一点。我们的整体方法为人类道德活动的相互因果解释和展望创造了空间。