cognitive psychotherapy an expression introduced by Brandt in A Theory of the Good and the Right (1979) to refer to a process of assessing and adjusting one’s desires, aversions, or pleasures (henceforth, ‘attitudes’). This process is central to Brandt’s analysis of rationality, and ultimately, to his view on the justification of morality.
Cognitive psychotherapy consists of the agent’s criticizing his attitudes by repeatedly representing to himself, in an ideally vivid way and at appropriate times, all relevant available information. Brandt characterizes the key definiens as follows: (1) available information is ‘propositions accepted by the science of the agent’s day, plus factual propositions justified by publicly accessible evidence (including testimony of others about themselves) and the principles of logic’; (2) information is relevant provided, if the agent were to reflect repeatedly on it, ‘it would make a difference,’ i.e., would affect the attitude in question, and the effect would be a function of its content, not an accidental byproduct; (3) relevant information is represented in an ideally vivid way when the agent focuses on it with maximal clarity and detail and with no hesitation or doubt about its truth; and (4) repeatedly and at appropriate times refer, respectively, to the frequency and occasions that would result in the information’s having the maximal attitudinal impact. Suppose Mary’s desire to smoke were extinguished by her bringing to the focus of her attention, whenever she was about to inhale smoke, some justified beliefs, say that smoking is hazardous to one’s health and may cause lung cancer; Mary’s desire would have been removed by cognitive psychotherapy. According to Brandt, an attitude is rational for a person provided it is one that would survive, or be produced by, cognitive psychotherapy; otherwise it is irrational. Rational attitudes, in this sense, provide a basis for moral norms. Roughly, the correct moral norms are those of a moral code that persons would opt for if (i) they were motivated by attitudes that survive the process of cognitive psychotherapy; and (ii) at the time of opting for a moral code, they were fully aware of, and vividly attentive to, all available information relevant to choosing a moral code (for a society in which they are to live for the rest of their lives). In this way, Brandt seeks a value-free justification for moral norms – one that avoids the problems of other theories such as those that make an appeal to intuitions. See also ETHICS, INSTRUMENTALISM, INTU- ITION , RATIONALITY. Y.Y.