Taking Moral Action (eBook)

Chuck Huff, Almut Furchert (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
9781118818060 (ISBN)

Infos

Provides a systematic framework for understanding and shaping moral action

Taking Moral Action offers a timely and comprehensive overview of the emerging field of moral psychology, introducing readers to one of the most vibrant areas of research in contemporary psychology. With an inclusive and interdisciplinary approach, authors Chuck Huff and Almut Furchert incorporate a wide range of scholarly traditions, philosophical theories, empirical findings, and practical moral writings to explore the complex network of influences, contexts, and processes involved in producing and structuring moral action.

Integrating key empirical and theoretical literature, this unique volume helps readers grasp the different aspects of both habitual and intentional acts of moral action. Thematically organized chapters examine moral action in contexts such as evolution, moral ecology, personality, moral identity and the self, moral reason, moral emotion, and more. Each chapter features a discussion of how neuroscience underlies or supports the influence and process addressed. Throughout the book, historical stories of moral action and examples of humanistic and experiential traditions of moral formation highlight what is possible, relevant, and appropriate in taking moral action in a variety of settings.

• Explores the relationships between moral psychology, empirical psychology, philosophy, and theology
• Considers the various ways that individuals experience and construct moral identity
• Emphasizes the practical application of the science of morality in service of moral good
• Reviews cultural, organizational, group, and social influences to investigate how individuals actively shape their moral environment
• Discusses the role of emotions in morality and considers if individuals can change or train their emotional responses

Taking Moral Action is essential reading for those new to the field and experienced practitioners alike. Containing extensive references and links to further readings, Taking Moral Action is also an excellent textbook for college and university courses in areas such as psychology, ethics, theology, philosophy, anthropology, and neuroscience.

CHUCK HUFF is Professor of Psychology and Computer Science at St. Olaf College, MN, where he teaches courses in social psychology, ethical issues in software design, the psychology of good and evil, and the psychology of religion. He has published quantitative and qualitative research on moral psychology, the ethical design of software, gender and computing, and digital ethics. His articles have appeared in computer science, education, philosophy, psychology, and sociology journals.

ALMUT FURCHERT is a German philosopher and psychologist in independent practice with expertise in existential, phenomenological, and hermeneutic traditions. She has published internationally in the intersection of philosophy, psychology, theology, and the caring professions, and has held academic positions at the Jesuit School of Philosophy in Munich, the Technical University of Munich, and the Hong Kierkegaard Research Library at St Olaf College. She is also a member of the Hildegard of Bingen Academy in Eibingen, Germany.

Inhalt

Preface ix

Introduction xiii

Part I Contexts 1

1 Evolution 3

2 Neuroscience of Moral Action 29

3 Moral Ecology 57

Part II Influences 87

4 Personality 89

5 Moral Identity and the Self 115

6 Skills and Knowledge 145

Part III Processes 177

7 Moral Reason 179

8 Moral Emotion 215

9 Moral Formation: Shaping Moral Action 246

Coda: Taking Moral Action 291

Index 299

Textauszug

Preface

This book is for anyone who wants to think carefully about the psychology of morality. This includes, of course, scholars and students in philosophy, psychology, and religion. But it is also for those in the many allied disciplines (e.g. criminology, pastoral care, peace studies, political science, social work, etc.) that are taking and supporting moral action in the world. More widely, we have tried to write it to be accessible to any careful reader interested in the topic, regardless of background. We hope it will provide you with a feeling for the wide variety of things one needs to consider to achieve an adequate understanding of what is today called moral psychology.

This book is an attempt to understand: (1) why people take moral action; and (2) the individual’s experience of actually doing so. The first task requires us to gather many different empirical literatures on the contexts, influences, and processes that explain why people take moral action. These literatures are what has come to be called moral psychology. The second task requires us to reframe those literature reviews in terms of the experience of the individual taking moral action. This second task, then, leads us into existential, philosophical, and theological concerns. The tension between these two tasks, the general/scientific and the individual/existential, allows us to use conceptual and empirical techniques from each approach to illuminate the other, thereby helping us to understand both better.

The first author (CH) is an American empirically minded social psychologist who has pursued applied ethical issues within the world of computing and software design. One research program has been experimental investigations of gender bias in computing systems and the other has focused on life story interviews of moral exemplars in software design. His work here has been to corral the wide‐ranging literatures and organize and present them in a digestible fashion.

The second author (AF) is a practicing German philosopher and psychologist with expertise in existential, phenomenological, and hermeneutic traditions as well as in the intersection of continental philosophy and applied psychology. She came to the project mainly to offer some hermeneutical tools to better map the landscape of the field, help create a narrative that connects loose ends, and bring some philosophical coherence to the categories and distinctions made in the text, thus creating the space in which the empirical focus of the text can stand.

Together, we reject the idea that it is useful to restrict moral psychology to any singular definition of morality, and instead encourage opening up the scope of “the moral” to all the interesting places one might find it. Our approach to framing the field is more like what used to be called natural history:1 a wide‐ranging approach to collecting the phenomena of interest wherever they are. It is not theory‐driven science but it embraces and uses theory‐driven science. Nor is it the amateur collection of occasional specimens – we try instead to systematically seek out naturally occurring variety and pattern in the phenomena of interest. Thus, this overview of moral psychology will be broader than others. We hope this breadth helps to heal some of the fragmentation in the field, placing often‐isolated literatures in conversations with each other.

Our goal is to expand the horizons of the field of moral psychology and to deepen and structure the complexities that one can find there. As you approach this book, you will find it useful to read the Introduction first, and then perhaps the short Coda. Both chapters will give you a feeling for our approach and help frame your reading of the more specialized chapters. The other chapters are designed to be read in any sequence. They are heavily interdependent, as evidenced by the numerous cross‐references to other chapters within each. One way to read the book is to follow these interconnections, starting with a chapter of interest, then deciding what to read next based on your interest and the interconnections. One can also read it straight through as a broad (if not exhaustive) overview of the field.

Gratitude

A project this wide‐ranging and long in gestation will have a host of people and institutions to thank. I beg your indulgence and ask that you actually read this list to give some honor to all those who have supported a project because they thought it was the right thing to do. They, of course, have no responsibility for errors or omissions in the project. I would, however, appreciate hearing from you if you find places where the text might be improved.

Thanks to Mark Snyder, the SPSSI books series editor, who read an initial book proposal that was focused narrowly on moral exemplars in computer science and helped transform it into a much more ambitious project. Thanks are also due to the initial reviewers Mark recruited who agreed that the ambitious project was a great idea but also likely impossible to complete. Fourteen years later, we can say the reviewers were right on both points.

Dan Perlman, the editor of the SPSSI series who took over from Mark Snyder, has been an unceasing voice of optimism and support in a long and difficult project. He helped us keep going when things were stalled, provided close reading and incisive commentary of his own, recruited a group of advisors and reviewers who have shaped the book in many ways, and more importantly, helped us to decide when to continue and when to quit improving things. Dan recruited several reviewers for early drafts of the manuscript. All were very helpful, but I want particularly to thank Jessica Salvatore for her close reading of almost the whole manuscript. She suggested revisions that opened new dimensions of variation in moral action and provided her encouragement to continue.

Laura Barnard Crosskey, my student and co‐author on several papers, initially agreed to help as second author. While she was completing her doctoral work in Clinical Psychology at Duke (with a parallel MDiv), she wisely decided that she could no longer participate. Still, the project shows signs of her influence in its interdisciplinary approach and its careful attention to human detail in the case studies. She is now a clinical psychologist in Chapel Hill, NC.

Ken Fleischmann, Bill Frey, Charles Harris, Francis Harvey, Deborah Johnson, Keith Miller, Helen Nissenbaum, Michael Pritchard, Simon Rogerson, and Katie Shilton have been early colleagues in work on ethical design of software. Though none are psychologists, I have learned more from them about moral action than from many psychology textbooks. Philosophers Rosalind Hursthouse and Linda Zagzebski, both experts in virtue theory, were gracious in conversations that helped me check my understanding of the area. Philosophers Anthony Rudd and John Davenport provided the same gracious service on narrative and the self.

Both Almut and I have been hospitably received at numerous monasteries in the United States and Europe as we have taken advantage of the scholarly atmosphere in these places to write, and to re‐re‐write. Foremost among these is the Studium program run by Sister Ann Marie Biermaier of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, MN. She and the Benedictine community there have admirably displayed the virtue of hospitality to scholars and interdisciplinary projects from across the globe. We have spent many cold (and some warm) months there shaping this book. Our daughter, now four years old, considers the monastery a second home. They have managed, without complaint, to clear almost all the crayon markings from the walls and furniture. Our daughter has also inspired the book cover, taken from a Kees de Kort illustration for the good Samaritan, her favorite bedtime story.

Other houses that have welcomed us for writing, and thereby contributed to this book, include the Jesuit Graduate School of Philosophy in Munich, specifically Professors Rüdiger Funiok and Eckhard Frick; St. Ottilien Arch Abbey in Eresing, Bavaria, particularly Fr. Otto Betler; St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville MN and Stadtkloster Segen, Berlin.

Simon Rogerson at DeMontfort University, Leicester UK, provided a year’s housing, the collegiality of the Center for Computing and Social Responsibility, and access to his extensive network of connections to support my work in moral exemplars in computing, which in the end produced the book proposal that morphed unexpectedly into this book.

The empirical and theoretical work that led to this book has been partially supported by a series of grants from the National Science Foundation [DUE‐9980786, DUE‐9972280, SES‐0217298, and SVS‐0822640]. Of course, any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. They may not even represent our current views when you read this (see the Introduction for how some theorists’ definitions of the moral domain change over time). We have also received generous sabbatical and other grant support from St. Olaf College. In the liberal arts tradition, my colleagues in the computer science, philosophy, psychology, and religion departments have been very supportive, often reading drafts of chapters related to their specialty and commenting on them.

The text has benefited from over ten years of classroom testing in my advanced seminar on The Psychology of Good and Evil. The students’ essay exams helped me understand which points were clear and which needed reconceptualization. Their comments in class shaped the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.10.2023
• Reihe/Serie: Contemporary Social Issues
• Reihe/Serie: Contemporary Social Issues
• Reihe/Serie: Contemporary Social Issues
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Sozialpsychologie
• Schlagworte: behaviour modification • cognitive behavioural change • Coping Styles • Emotional Regulation • emotional wellbeing • moral action textbook • moral psychology • moral psychology action introduction • moral psychology introduction • moral psychology neuroscience • moral psychology overview • moral psychology research • moral psychology textbook • moral psychology theories • negative thinking • Personality Patterns • Psychologie • Psychology • schema psychotherapy • schema therapy • schema therapy mental health • self-awareness • Self-Help • Social Psychology • Sozialpsychologie
• ISBN-13: 9781118818060 / 9781118818060