CONCEPT
Moral Resources
Glover's term for the three psychological capacities — sympathy, respect for persons, and moral identity — that prevent cruelty when they operate and that atrophy when institutional conditions suppress them.
Glover rejected the idea that moral behavior is produced by correct beliefs. The people who committed atrocities often held correct beliefs about right and wrong. What they lacked were the operational capacities that convert belief into action. Glover identified three: sympathy, the capacity to feel something of what another person feels; respect for persons, the recognition of others as beings with their own perspectives and dignity; and moral identity, the sense of oneself as a particular kind of person who would not do certain things. These are not abstract principles. They are psychological muscles — real, measurable, trainable, depletable. Exercised, they strengthen; neglected, they atrophy; subjected to institutional pressure that rewards their suppression, they wither. The moral atmosphere of an institution determines which resources are exercised and which are suppressed. The AI-assisted workplace has a specific atmosphere, and On AI uses Glover's framework to map what it exercises and what it starves.
