The Perception of Virtue

Author(s):  
Jennifer Matey

It is not uncommon for people to like what they take as morally good. And often these feelings of esteem for virtue come prior to conscious cognitive appraisals about character. This chapter outlines a framework for understanding some emotional responses of esteem to perceived good character as representing the character traits as valuable, and hence, as virtues. It is proposed that these esteeming experiences are analogous to perceptual representations in other modalities in their epistemic role as causing, providing content for, and in justifying beliefs regarding the value of the traits they represent. The role of the perceiver’s own character in their ability to recognize and respond appropriately to virtue in others is also discussed. It is shown that moral virtues can also be epistemic virtues when it comes to facilitating knowledge about the character of people we encounter.

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Colin Agur ◽  
Lanhuizi Gan

Scholars have recognized emotion as an increasingly important element in the reception and retransmission of online information. In the United States, because of existing differences in ideology, among both audiences and producers of news stories, political issues are prone to spark considerable emotional responses online. While much research has explored emotional responses during election campaigns, this study focuses on the role of online emotion in social media posts related to day-to-day governance in between election periods. Specifically, this study takes the 2018–2019 government shutdown as its subject of investigation. The data set shows the prominence of journalistic and political figures in leading the discussion of news stories, the nuance of emotions employed in the news frames, and the choice of pro-attitudinal news sharing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 101907
Author(s):  
Charles-Étienne Lavoie ◽  
Robert J. Vallerand ◽  
Jérémie Verner-Filion

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 302-303
Author(s):  
Stephanie Yamin ◽  
Roxana Manoiu ◽  
Gary Naglie ◽  
Sarah Sanford ◽  
Elaine Stasiulis ◽  
...  

Abstract Driving often provides a sense of independence, quality of life and emotional wellbeing. For older adults living with dementia, driving cessation eventually becomes inevitable. Driving cessation has been shown to negatively impact older adults’ mobility and, consequently, quality of life. Caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD) who have ceased driving are also impacted as they often become responsible for meeting the mobility needs of PWD and they provide emotional support in respect to this significant life transition. To date, there is little information on the role of gender in the transition to driving cessation in PWD. The purpose of this study was to examine the role that gender plays among drivers and ex-drivers with dementia from the perspectives of PWD, their caregivers, and healthcare practitioners. Secondary thematic analyses were conducted from a pre-existing sample of persons with dementia (N=10), family caregivers (N=13), and healthcare practitioners (N=6) who participated in interviews and focus groups about their experiences around driving cessation in the context of dementia. Data analyses involved an inductive thematic technique that allowed for generating themes. The main themes identified gender differences as a significant factor in: (1) difficulty accepting driving cessation (2) driving as it is tied to identity, (3) emotional responses to driving cessation, (4) driving as part of the caregiving role. The findings suggest that there is a need for tailored interventions for men and women who lose their ability to drive, in addressing their unique emotional responses and in supporting them through this important life transition.


2020 ◽  
pp. 102986492097472
Author(s):  
Katherine O’Neill ◽  
Hauke Egermann

Recent research has explored the role of empathy in the context of music listening. Here, through an empathy priming paradigm, situational empathy was shown to act as a causal mechanism in inducing emotion, although the way empathy was primed had low levels of ecological validity. We therefore conducted an online experiment to explore the extent to which information about a composer’s expressive intentions when writing a piece of music would significantly affect the degree to which participants reportedly empathise with the composer and in turn influence emotional responses to expressive music. A total of 229 participants were randomly assigned to three groups. The experimental group read short texts describing the emotions felt by the composer during the process of composition. To control for the effect of text regardless of its content, one control group read texts describing the characteristics of the music they were to hear, and a second control group was not given any textual information. Participants listened to 30-second excerpts of four pieces of music, selected to express emotions from the four quadrants of the circumplex theory of emotion. Having heard each music excerpt, participants rated the valence and arousal they experienced and completed a measure of situational empathy. Results show that situational empathy in response to music is significantly associated with trait empathy. As opposed to those in the control conditions, participants in the experimental group responded with significantly higher levels of situational empathy. Receiving this text significantly moderated the effect of the expressiveness of stimuli on induced emotion, indicating that it induced empathy. We conclude that empathy can be induced during music listening through the provision of information about the specific emotions of a person relating to the music. These findings contribute to an understanding of the psychological mechanisms that underlie emotional responses to music.


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-168
Author(s):  
Kirsten Dickhaut

AbstractThe machine theatre in France achieves its peak in the second half of the seventeenth century. It is the construction of machines that permits the adequate representation of the third dimension on stage. This optical illusion is created by flying characters, as heroes, gods, or demons moving horizontally and vertically. The enumeration indicates that only characters possessing either ethically exemplary character traits or incorporating sin are allowed to fly. Therefore, the third dimension indicates bienséance – or its opposite. According to this, the following thesis is deduced: The machine theatre illustrates via aesthetic concerns characterising its third dimension an ethic foundation. Ethic and aesthetics determine each other in the context of both, decorum and in theatre practice. In order to prove this thesis three steps are taken. First of all, the machine theatre’s relationship to imitation and creation is explored. Second, the stage design, representing the aesthetic benefits of the machines in service of the third dimension, are explained. Finally, the concrete example of Pierre Corneille’s Andromède is analysed by pointing out the role of Pegasus and Perseus.


2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
L. Krabbendam ◽  
I. Myin-Germeys ◽  
M. Hanssen ◽  
M. Bak ◽  
R. de Graaf ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 186-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willibald Ruch ◽  
Richard Bruntsch ◽  
Lisa Wagner

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 432-446
Author(s):  
Herman Paul

Abstract In response to Anton Froeyman’s paper, “Virtues of Historiography,” this article argues that philosophers of history interested in why historians cherish such virtues as carefulness, impartiality, and intellectual courage would do wise not to classify these virtues unequivocally as either epistemic or moral virtues. Likewise, in trying to grasp the roles that virtues play in the historian’s professional practice, philosophers of history would be best advised to avoid adopting either an epistemological or an ethical perspective. Assuming that the historian’s virtuous behavior has epistemic and moral dimensions (as well as aesthetic, political, and other dimensions), this article advocates a non-reductionist account of historical scholarship, which acknowledges that the virtues cherished by historians usually play a variety of roles, depending on the goals they are supposed to serve. Given that not the least important of these goals are epistemic ones, the articles concludes that virtue ethical approaches, to the extent that they are focused on the acquisition of moral instead of epistemic goods, insufficiently recognize the role of virtue in the pursuit of such epistemic aims as knowledge and understanding.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document