The Learner’s Motivation and the Structure of Habituation in Aristotle

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Hampson
Keyword(s):  
Moral Development ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Habituation Process

AbstractMoral virtue is, for Aristotle, a state to which an agent’s motivation is central. For anyone interested in Aristotle’s account of moral development this invites reflection on two questions: how is it that virtuous motivational dispositions are established? And what contribution do the moral learner’s existing motivational states make to the success of her habituation? I argue that views which demand that the learner act with virtuous motives if she is to acquire virtuous dispositions misconstrue the nature and structure of the habituation process, but also obscure Aristotle’s crucial insight that the very practice of virtuous actions affords a certain discovery and can be transformative of an agent’s motivational states. Drawing attention, in Aristotle’s account, to an asymmetry between the agential perspective and the observation of others, I consider what the agential perspective affords the learner, and offer a novel interpretation of the role a learner’s existing motives play in her habituation.

From Natural Character to Moral Virtue in Aristotle

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariska Leunissen
Keyword(s):  
Moral Development ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Moral Virtues ◽  
Comprehensive Account ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Aristotle's Ethics

This book discusses Aristotle’s biological views about character and the importance of what he calls “natural character traits” for the development of moral virtue as presented in his ethical treatises. It provides a new, comprehensive account of the physiological underpinnings of moral development and thereby shows, first, that Aristotle’s ethical theories do not exhaust his views about character, as has traditionally been assumed, and, second, that his treatment of natural character in the biological treatises provides the conceptual and ideological foundation for his views about habituation as developed in his ethics. This manuscript thus takes seriously Aristotle’s claim—often ignored—that nature is one of the factors through which men become “good and capable of fine deeds.” Part I (“The Physiology and Science of Natural Character”) analyzes, in three chapters, Aristotle’s notion of natural character as it is developed in the biological treatises and its role in moral development, especially as it affects women and certain “barbarians”—groups who are typically left out of accounts of Aristotle’s ethics. I also discuss its relevance for our understanding of physiognomical ideas in Aristotle. Part II (“The Physiology of Moral Development”) explores the psychophysical changes in body and soul that one is required to undergo in the process of acquiring moral virtues. It includes a discussion of Aristotle’s eugenic views, his identification of habituation as a form of human perfection, and his claims about the moral deficiencies of women that link them to his beliefs about their biological imperfections.

Emma’s Pensive Meditations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Freeland
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Moral Development ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Moral Growth ◽  
Moral Guidance

This chapter focuses on the role of shame in Emma Woodhouse’s moral development in Jane Austen’s Emma. It shows similarities between Austen’s theory of moral virtue and Aristotle’s. Both emphasize the need for finely tuned perception as well as habits of feeling and appropriate action. Like Austen, Aristotle treats shame as a spur to moral growth. Emma learns from her mistakes; she feels shame after acting badly, and Mr. Knightley serves as Emma’s moral tutor. But it is unclear in Aristotle whether young people learn to be virtuous more through pleasure or through pain. The chapter examines where Austen’s view falls in this debate. Finally, it addresses the worry that Emma’s guidance by Mr. Knightley reflects the sexist view that women need moral guidance from their husbands. The author argues that Knightley’s remarks to Emma about her character indicate that Austen is not vulnerable to this criticism.

The graded engagement model of admiration

2021 ◽  
pp. 147787852199630
Author(s):  
Sabrina B. Little
Keyword(s):  
Action Potential ◽  
Moral Development ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Developmental Assessment ◽  
Middle Term ◽  
Developmental Progression ◽  
Motivational Profile ◽  
Over Time

Admiration is often described as having a singular motivational profile – the disposition to imitate. This article provides a developmental assessment of admiration’s action-potential, proposing a series of stages between (1) naïve imitation, a basic mimetic impulse, and (2) non-imitative virtuous actions. The process is marked by an increasing ability to represent the actions and desires of another, becoming the middle term between the learner and the exemplar. This developmental assessment is necessary because the leading accounts of moral development today lean on the idea of imitation as essential to the process of virtue acquisition without providing an explanation of how imitation works, psychologically speaking. Moreover, these accounts treat imitation as a static disposition, rather than one that matures over time. Insight regarding this developmental progression can provide us with a better sense of how to educate using exemplars in order to advance a learner from admiration to moral virtue. This article also fills in gaps in the admiration literature concerning how we regard inimitable excellences and contends that it may not be beneficial to emulate an exemplar’s motivations, in addition to her actions.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE REFORMATORIES

1913 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 396-402
Author(s):  
R. B. von Kleinsmid
Keyword(s):  
Moral Development

Food-Evoked Changes in Humans

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Walla ◽  
Maria Richter ◽  
Stella Färber ◽  
Ulrich Leodolter ◽  
Herbert Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Food Intake ◽  
Startle Response ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Soft Drink ◽  
Ice Cream ◽  
Response Amplitude ◽  
Response Modulation ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Localization Analysis ◽  
Study Participants

Two experiments investigate effects related to food intake in humans. In Experiment 1, we measured startle response modulation while study participants ate ice cream, yoghurt, and chocolate. Statistical analysis revealed that ice cream intake resulted in the most robust startle inhibition compared to no food. Contrasting females and males, we found significant differences related to the conditions yoghurt and chocolate. In females, chocolate elicited the lowest response amplitude followed by yoghurt and ice cream. In males, chocolate produced the highest startle response amplitude even higher than eating nothing, whereas ice cream produced the lowest. Assuming that high response amplitudes reflect aversive motivation while low response amplitudes reflect appetitive motivational states, it is interpreted that eating ice cream is associated with the most appetitive state given the alternatives of chocolate and yoghurt across gender. However, in females alone eating chocolate, and in males alone eating ice cream, led to the most appetitive state. Experiment 2 was conducted to describe food intake-related brain activity by means of source localization analysis applied to electroencephalography data (EEG). Ice cream, yoghurt, a soft drink, and water were compared. Brain activity in rostral portions of the superior frontal gyrus was found in all conditions. No localization differences between conditions occurred. While EEG was found to be insensitive, startle response modulation seems to be a reliable method to objectively quantify motivational states related to the intake of different foods.

Oral Approach Avoidance

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 355-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Godinho ◽  
Margarida V. Garrido ◽  
Oleksandr V. Horchak
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Oral Movements ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Oral Approach ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
European Family

Abstract. Words whose articulation resembles ingestion movements are preferred to words mimicking expectoration movements. This so-called in-out effect, suggesting that the oral movements caused by consonantal articulation automatically activate concordant motivational states, was already replicated in languages belonging to Germanic (e.g., German and English) and Italic (e.g., Portuguese) branches of the Indo-European family. However, it remains unknown whether such preference extends to the Indo-European branches whose writing system is based on the Cyrillic rather than Latin alphabet (e.g., Ukrainian), or whether it occurs in languages not belonging to the Indo-European family (e.g., Turkish). We replicated the in-out effect in two high-powered experiments ( N = 274), with Ukrainian and Turkish native speakers, further supporting an embodied explanation for this intriguing preference.

Review of Theories of Moral Development.

1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 809-810
Author(s):  
Terri Gullickson
Keyword(s):  
Moral Development

Moral Development Comes of Age

1987 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 555-556
Author(s):  
Marcia Mentkowski
Keyword(s):  
Moral Development
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