It is named after the Sabines, an ancient people that were in Latium before Rome was founded.
The legend says that Romans abducted Sabine women to populate the newbuilt town, but more realistic studies found many relationships between the two peoples, especially regarding religion and mythology. Many Sabine deities and cults found in fact a development in Rome, and many areas of the town (like the Quirinale) were once Sabine centers.
The area is today a tourist destination, with plenty of interesting medieval villages, and is perhaps more famous for its olive oil production.
Philosophers have a bad habit of talking about the intuitions of "ordinary folk" (or "our intuitions") without averting to any evidence as to what people actually think about the questions at issue, and without attending to the possibility that the "intuitions" are affected by irrelevant factors (from framing effects to socio-economic status).
The experimental results are fascinating, even if their interpretation remains quite contestable (that is especially true, it struck me, with respect to the experiments testing incompatibilist intuitions--though for a different, recent example, see John Sabini and Maury Silver, "Lack of Character?
Can there be any doubt, though, that if philosophy is to avoid self-congratulatory parochialism that this kind of work must define the future direction of philosophical research?
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