Sentiment, care, and respect

Michael Slote proposes a rethinking of moral education from the perspective of a normative ethics of care combined with his distinctive sentimentalist metaethics. I raise questions concerning the role of empathy in Slote’s picture and argue that empathy is related to respect and sentiments through which we hold ourselves and one another accountable. Care in the sense of benevolent concern is a fundamentally different attitude from (recognition) respect: whereas the former is focused on its object’s well-being, the latter responds to a person’s dignity and authority to make claims and demands of us.

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Art and Morality

Philosophy ◽

10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0108 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Andrea Sauchelli

Keyword(s):

Moral Education ◽

Great Majority ◽

Well Being ◽

Point Of View ◽

Proper Function ◽

Human Beings ◽

Ethical Criticism ◽

Positive Role ◽

Works Of Art

A great number of works of art, it is commonly claimed, are aesthetically valuable. Some philosophers have even argued that providing an aesthetically pleasing experience is their only proper function. However, some of these artworks display or invite us to adopt an immoral point of view. Even worse, they even seem to make immoral situations delightful and appealing. The following questions thus arise: Does the alleged immorality of these works count as an aesthetic or artistic defect? Can an immoral movie or novel ever be a great example of its kind? In addition to these concerns related to art evaluation, the connection between various forms of art and morality has been investigated by discussing the capacity of works of art to move us emotionally. More specifically, thinkers from different traditions and ages have remarked that works of art are clearly able, first, to stir our emotions in a particularly effective way, and, second, to invite us to act following certain ideas that have been made appealing by their beauty or other aesthetic qualities. Plato was the first in the Western tradition to evaluate in a systematic way whether, as a consequence of the previous considerations, we should supervise the storytellers who are supposed to educate our youth. Other philosophers, from Aristotle to more recent advocates of the value of the humanities, have argued in favor of the positive role that truly great works of art may have in our moral education. Contemporary philosophers are also interested in the role of imagination in fictional immoral contexts (can we engage with immoral works of art and be justified in so doing?). They are also interested in the role played by art in contributing to our well-being and flourishing as human beings. The great majority of recent works on the topic, however, are focused on an assessment of the arguments in favor or against ethical criticism, with a particular emphasis on the criticism of representational works of art. Other issues at the intersection of art and morality are the concept of the obscene, the value of pornography, and censorship.

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Why should an ethics of care matter in education?

Transformation in Higher Education ◽

10.4102/the.v6i0.127 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Author(s):

Jerome P. Joorst

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Moral Education ◽

Teacher Attrition ◽

Teaching Practice ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Ethics Of Care ◽

Professional Preparation ◽

Regulatory Environment ◽

Care Approach

When a black 2nd-year student educator gets chased away from a school whilst doing his teaching practice for hair ‘not setting an appropriate example to learners’, the incident elicits questions about the rights of student educators during teaching practice, as well as the extent to which universities and schools care for, support and prepare student educators for the realities of schooling in South Africa. I situate the article in Transformation in Higher Education and the discourses of moral education concerning universities’ preparation of student educators in conjunction with schools in South Africa. The purpose in this article is to critically evaluate the neoliberal regulatory environment that frames education in general and how this has led to ‘uncaring’ environments in which student educators must operate during the execution of their teaching practice. I applied an ethics-of-care- approach to conceptually discuss the central role that care should play in the professional development of student educators. A decline in the level of care for student educators during teaching practice by universities and schools has an increasingly negative impact on their professional preparation which might lead to increased teacher attrition and discourage new entrants to the profession. To achieve the kind of care among teachers we envisage through education, universities and schools will have to re-examine the role of care for student educators during teaching practice.

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Michael Slote and ‘Sentimentalist moral education’

Theory and Research in Education ◽

10.1177/1477878510368622 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 163-171

Author(s):

Thomas Wren

Keyword(s):

Moral Education ◽

Ethics Of Care ◽

Specific Character ◽

Michael Slote ◽

Moral Principles ◽

Human Emotions

Although I think most of what Michael Slote asserts in his article ‘Sentimentalist moral education’ is correct, I worry about three important ideas that are conspicuous by their absence. The first is the possibility that human emotions and feelings are inherently cognitive, which is never considered in his psychological account of empathy. The second is that his metaethical claim that ‘our very understanding of moral terms and moral principles rests on a foundation of empathy’ fails to recognize the culture-specific character of the very concept of morality. My third misgiving is that Slote overstates the now-standard distinction between the ethics of care and the ethics of principles, which I argue is a matter of emphasis, not opposition, especially in the context of moral education.

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Towards a liberatory ethics of care framework for organizing social change

Journal of Social and Political Psychology ◽

10.5964/jspp.v6i2.909 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 575-590 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Anjali Dutt ◽

Danielle Kohfeldt

Keyword(s):

Social Change ◽

Community Psychology ◽

Ethics Of Care ◽

Well Being ◽

The United States ◽

Societal Transformation ◽

Activist Art ◽

Feminist Organizing ◽

Latinx Youth

Community psychology originated as a discipline designed to reduce societal inequities and promote social justice. The field’s development, however, coincides with the proliferation of neoliberal policies and ideology that run counter to many of the aims of community psychology. In light of the contemporary socio-political landscape, this paper advances a liberatory ethics of care model as a path forward for community psychologists interested in societal transformation. We illustrate liberatory care as a guide for social change via case studies of two different groups involved in transformation-oriented projects to improve the well-being of their communities (i.e., Latinx youth in the United States involved in an activist art project and women in rural Nicaragua involved in feminist organizing). We specifically illustrate that an ethics of care framework both guides the actions of these groups, and offers an alternative focus for community psychologists interested in promoting transformation towards more healthful and just societies. We aim to contribute to efforts to promote justice-oriented change by explicating the role of care-oriented communal values in promoting liberatory practices.

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Social Motives Predict Loneliness During a Developmental Transition

Swiss Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1024/1421-0185/a000201 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 76 (4) ◽

pp. 145-153 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jana Nikitin ◽

Alexandra M. Freund

Keyword(s):

Social Relationships ◽

Well Being ◽

Social Avoidance ◽

Social Approach ◽

Social Motives ◽

Developmental Transitions ◽

Avoidance Motivation ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Low Levels

Abstract. Establishing new social relationships is important for mastering developmental transitions in young adulthood. In a 2-year longitudinal study with four measurement occasions (T1: n = 245, T2: n = 96, T3: n = 103, T4: n = 85), we investigated the role of social motives in college students’ mastery of the transition of moving out of the parental home, using loneliness as an indicator of poor adjustment to the transition. Students with strong social approach motivation reported stable and low levels of loneliness. In contrast, students with strong social avoidance motivation reported high levels of loneliness. However, this effect dissipated relatively quickly as most of the young adults adapted to the transition over a period of several weeks. The present study also provides evidence for an interaction between social approach and social avoidance motives: Social approach motives buffered the negative effect on social well-being of social avoidance motives. These results illustrate the importance of social approach and social avoidance motives and their interplay during developmental transitions.

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Psychological Resilience Provides No Independent Protection From Suicidal Risk

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000364 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 130-139 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Danica W. Y. Liu ◽

A. Kate Fairweather-Schmidt ◽

Richard Burns ◽

Rachel M. Roberts ◽

Kaarin J. Anstey

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Well Being ◽

Current Status ◽

Psychological Resilience ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Life Project ◽

Resilience Factors ◽

First Time

Abstract. Background: Little is known about the role of resilience in the likelihood of suicidal ideation (SI) over time. Aims: We examined the association between resilience and SI in a young-adult cohort over 4 years. Our objectives were to determine whether resilience was associated with SI at follow-up or, conversely, whether SI was associated with lowered resilience at follow-up. Method: Participants were selected from the Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life Project from Canberra and Queanbeyan, Australia, aged 28–32 years at the first time point and 32–36 at the second. Multinomial, linear, and binary regression analyses explored the association between resilience and SI over two time points. Models were adjusted for suicidality risk factors. Results: While unadjusted analyses identified associations between resilience and SI, these effects were fully explained by the inclusion of other suicidality risk factors. Conclusion: Despite strong cross-sectional associations, resilience and SI appear to be unrelated in a longitudinal context, once risk/resilience factors are controlled for. As independent indicators of psychological well-being, suicidality and resilience are essential if current status is to be captured. However, the addition of other factors (e.g., support, mastery) makes this association tenuous. Consequently, resilience per se may not be protective of SI.

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Prospective Memory Development Across the Lifespan

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000380 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 162-173 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sascha Zuber ◽

Matthias Kliegel

Keyword(s):

Prospective Memory ◽

Healthy Aging ◽

Present Model ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Well Being ◽

The Elderly ◽

Cognitive Factors ◽

Everyday Functioning ◽

Integrative Framework

Abstract. Prospective Memory (PM; i.e., the ability to remember to perform planned tasks) represents a key proxy of healthy aging, as it relates to older adults’ everyday functioning, autonomy, and personal well-being. The current review illustrates how PM performance develops across the lifespan and how multiple cognitive and non-cognitive factors influence this trajectory. Further, a new, integrative framework is presented, detailing how those processes interplay in retrieving and executing delayed intentions. Specifically, while most previous models have focused on memory processes, the present model focuses on the role of executive functioning in PM and its development across the lifespan. Finally, a practical outlook is presented, suggesting how the current knowledge can be applied in geriatrics and geropsychology to promote healthy aging by maintaining prospective abilities in the elderly.

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