Philosophy Professor Explores Fine Lines Between Right and Wrong in March 29 Public Lecture

Heidi Maibom settled back in her University of Cincinnati office chair in McMicken Hall, her fingers interlocked in front of her. “It is not that psychopaths are incapable of knowing right from wrong and that is why they don’t care about, say, harming others," said the

Life of the Mind

lecturer and professor of philosophy. “They understand that certain things are wrong and they aren’t supposed to do them, but they just don’t really care,” she said.  

But we’ve all done things that we know are wrong, she explained, so in that way we are no different from psychopaths. Where we really see the difference is that psychopaths do not seem to care much about any action being wrong, if it furthers their interests, where ordinary people’s lack of caring is much less extreme. 

She contends that philosophers have a lot to offer psychologists and other scientific researchers. 

“Some of the important questions for instance that came into play in psychology were asked by philosophers,” said Maibom. For instance, the idea that you can check whether nonhuman animals and young children have a concept of belief by checking whether they understand false belief was first proposed by philosopher Daniel Dennett.

Maibom’s work intersects the philosophy of the mind, psychology and cognitive science. She believes in the great benefit of different disciplines working together on single topics or questions. She found this to be true in her book, Empathy and Morality. 

“One of the things that I think is cool about the book is that we’ve got  neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, criminologists and anthropologists contributing papers,” she stated.

Growing up Maibom was interested in becoming either a firefighter, a police officer or an explorer because of her desire to explore new things and help others find the truth. It wasn’t until high school, when she started reading Plato and Camus, that she began to have interest in philosophy.  

“Philosophy sort of stood out because it seemed like it addresses the fundamental questions of human existence,” said Maibom.

Maibom also does research on shame, empathy, neuroscience and feminism. She claims that shame is about living up to a standard that the community holds and it evolved from submission in non-human animals. 

“When you’re ashamed you contract your body and you become small. You have a feeling of wanting to sink into the ground,” she said. 

In Maibom’s book Empathy and Morality, she discusses the role that empathy plays in morality. People have a natural tendency to feel the pain and happiness of other people. We see this in the earliest form when a baby cries because another baby cries. 

“Even soldiers have to be trained to hurt other soldiers because most people have an inhibition against it,” she said.

Maibom and other experts in her book Neurofeminism look at how the neurosciences affect the classical issues in the philosophy of feminism. They have found that there are very few cognitive differences between men and women. The only big difference is the body structure of the sexes due to reproduction purposes. However, the only results that get a lot of press or attention claim that there are cognitive differences. 

“So then the problem is that science is negatively affected by that kind of bias toward publishing studies that show effects rather than studies that show no effects,” she said. 

Maibom is a proud teacher and believes that philosophy is a great major because it disciplines the mind. Philosophy questions the meaning of life, justice, truth and knowledge. Contrary to what people think, philosophy majors can receive high paying jobs after college because of the skills they learn, she said.

She is currently working on a book titled Knowing Me, Knowing You. In the book she argues that distance in perspectives between our self now and our former selves is as big as the differences between our perspective and that of other people. This is particularly true when we have undergone experiences, such as becoming religious or atheist, or falling in and out of love. 

“All of a sudden you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this person is like the most wonderful person in the world, and you’re running after them like a dog in heat,” she said. “Then suddenly you fall out of love and you’re like I don’t even understand, this guy is a terrible person, and he’s not even attractive.” 

She hopes her new book will reach a more general audience because it teaches others how to live better. 

“I think philosophy has something to contribute, but the way that academia has worked for a little while is to increase specialization, so philosophy becomes opaque to everybody else,” she said. 

Maibom's Life of the Mind Lecture takes place March 29, from 3:30-5 p.m. She will be joined by Cal Adler, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience in the College of Medicine; Valerie Gray Hardcastle, professor of philosophy, psychology and psychiatry & behavioral neuroscience in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences; and Ethan Katz, assistant professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences.