Can Substitution Inferences Explain the Knobe Effect?

The Knobe effect is the phenomenon demonstrated in the course of repeated studies showing that moral valence affects the way
in which we apply concepts. Knobe explains the effect by appealing to the nature of the concepts themselves: whether they
actually apply in some situation depends upon the moral valence of some element of that situation. In this paper, a different
picture of the effect is presented and given motivation. It is suggested that subjects apply concepts on the basis of substitution
inferences. It is attempted to show that this picture is incompatible with, but preferable to, Knobe’s theory. In closing,
some further observations and suggestions are given with respect to further research into the apparent effect of moral valence.