Moral Judgments, Moral Virtues, and Moral Norms

Human Affairs ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Popper

Moral Judgments, Moral Virtues, and Moral NormsThe paper consists of two basic parts. In the first, contemporary approaches to moral judgments and their relations with moral virtues and moral norms are analyzed. The focus is on comparing the role of the emotions and reason, and conscious and unconscious processes in forming and/or justifying moral judgments. The second part examines views on the current broader socio-political situation in Western countries and points to the growing feelings of insecurity among people mainly due to the fact that traditional ways of life have been losing solid ground, settled (social) norms and ethical systems are weakening and at the same time the social trust in various state institutions and bureaucratic structures involved in power is decreasing. In conclusion the author argues for the potential of the ethic of autonomy that would lead to still greater cooperation in globalized ethic, primarily thanks to our moral emotions and moral judgments.

2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092199450
Author(s):  
Nicola Maggini ◽  
Tom Montgomery ◽  
Simone Baglioni

Against the background of crisis and cuts, citizens can express solidarity with groups in various ways. Using novel survey data this article explores the attitudes and behaviours of citizens in their expressions of solidarity with disabled people and in doing so illuminates the differences and similarities across two European contexts: Italy and the UK. The findings reveal pools of solidarity with disabled people across both countries that have on the one hand similar foundations such as the social embeddedness and social trust of citizens, while on the other hand contain some differences, such as the more direct and active nature of solidarity in Italy compared to the UK and the role of religiosity as an important determinant, particularly in Italy. Across both countries the role of ‘deservingness’ was key to understanding solidarity, and the study’s conclusions raise questions about a solidarity embedded by a degree of paternalism and even religious piety.


2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (6. ksz.) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Vince Vári

In recent decades, a number of studies have appeared, mainly in the Western European police literature, which have examined the role of the police in society, the social utility of their operations and the social trust factors achieved throug the effectiveness of their procedures. These studies have revealed a number of factors which, although indirect, can be measured and understood. Nevertheless, they have hitherto been treated as abstract concepts in scientific approaches. These include the legality, legitimacy and fairness of police actions and procedures. In this study, I will show that the police can have a significant impact on social capital if they focus on these factors. In particular, it can improve that by focusing on aspects of procedural justice in measuring organizational effectiveness. However, the malleability of trust is questionable in a society where the overall level of trust is already low.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beata Łopaciuk-Gonczaryk

A shortage of social capital may hinder sustainable development. According to the “social capital dream” there is a virtuous circle between participation in social networks, trust, and cooperation. It is a promising idea for proponents of sustainability, as it is easier to promote participation than affect social norms. Participation may, however, lead to particularized and not generalized trust, which hinders social inclusion and undermines the idea of a sustainable society. The aim of this paper is to validate the role of participation in informal and formal social networks in enhancing social trust and respect towards others. The relevance of both strong and weak ties is considered. Fixed-effects modeling on three-wave data from a Polish social survey is utilized. An increase in generalized trust corresponds with an increase in the acquaintances network, a decrease in the family and friends network, and an increase in volunteering. A rise in expectations about the cooperativeness of others is enhanced by an increase in the family and friends network, and by volunteering. The lack of respect for some groups of people is not affected by participation in organizations and informal networks. Overall within-person heterogeneity is small, suggesting that possibilities for fostering moral trust by participation are limited.


Author(s):  
Arthur A. Raney

This article examines the complex role that morality plays in emotional reactions to media entertainment. Morality no doubt influences and to a certain extent governs our emotional responses to media, with the stories we chose to consume, the characters we love and hate, the rationale behind those feelings, the emotions that we experience on their behalf, and the pleasure and meaning comes as a result. Specifically, as media consumers, we experience emotional reactions to characters (liking), to their plights (anticipatory emotions), and to their ultimate outcomes (enjoyment and appreciation). Each of these emotional reactions are regulated by morality: character liking by moral judgments about the behaviors and motivations of characters, anticipatory emotions by sense of expected justice restoration, and enjoyment by the moral evaluation of the actual outcome portrayed in relation to the expected outcome. These processes and relationships are discussed in light of recent work on moral intuition, moral emotions, and moral disengagement.


2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 1431-1450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae-Eun Kim ◽  
Kim K.P. Johnson

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of individuals’ self-view (interdependent, independent) in the relationship between moral emotions and moral judgments made concerning the purchase of fashion counterfeits. Design/methodology/approach – Based on reviewing the literature on moral decision making, moral emotion and self-construal, we test the hypotheses by two experimental studies. Findings – The results of two studies demonstrated that independents were more likely to judge counterfeits as morally wrong when pride rather than shame was associated with counterfeits or was evoked through an anti-counterfeit campaign. Interdependents were more likely to judge counterfeits as morally wrong when shame rather than pride was evoked through an anti-counterfeit campaign. Research limitations/implications – Results can inform marketing communication campaigns designed to prevent the proliferation of counterfeits in the fashion industry. Originality/value – The contribution of this research is the expansion of prior work on consumers’ purchase of counterfeit goods by the discovery of the causal direction of individuals’ differences in self-view and its impact on moral judgment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 2186-2196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley C. Thomas ◽  
Katie E. Croft ◽  
Daniel Tranel

The ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) has been implicated as a critical neural substrate mediating the influence of emotion on moral reasoning. It has been shown that the vmPFC is especially important for making moral judgments about “high-conflict” moral dilemmas involving direct personal actions, that is, scenarios that pit compelling utilitarian considerations of aggregate welfare against the highly emotionally aversive act of directly causing harm to others [Koenigs, M., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F., Hauser, M., et al. Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgments. Nature, 446, 908–911, 2007]. The current study was designed to elucidate further the role of the vmPFC in high-conflict moral judgments, including those that involve indirect personal actions, such as indirectly causing harm to one's kin to save a group of strangers. We found that patients with vmPFC lesions were more likely than brain-damaged and healthy comparison participants to endorse utilitarian outcomes on high-conflict dilemmas regardless of whether the dilemmas (1) entailed direct versus indirect personal harms and (2) were presented from the Self versus Other perspective. In addition, all groups were more likely to endorse utilitarian outcomes in the Other perspective as compared with the Self perspective. These results provide important extensions of previous work, and the findings align with the proposal that the vmPFC is critical for reasoning about moral dilemmas in which anticipating the social-emotional consequences of an action (e.g., guilt or remorse) is crucial for normal moral judgments [Greene, J. D. Why are VMPFC patients more utilitarian?: A dual-process theory of moral judgment explains. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 322–323, 2007; Koenigs, M., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F., Hauser, M., et al. Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgments. Nature, 446, 908–911, 2007].


2021 ◽  
Vol 125 ◽  
pp. 01005
Author(s):  
Zoya Dmitrievna Denikina ◽  
Pirmagomed Shikhmagomedovich Shikhgafizov ◽  
Aleksandr Valentinovich Sablukov ◽  
Vyacheslav Leonidovich Primakov ◽  
Valery Aleksandrovich Lapshov

The article examines the epistemological status of the phenomenon of social trust. The research purpose is to explicate the concept of trust in connection with the fundamental transformation of socio-historical practice and social knowledge. The priority methodological task is to study the problem within the framework of the system methodology evolution and consider the parameters of trust in the intervals of non-classical and post-non-classical systems analysis. The study is based on a philosophical-scientific paradigm approach. Epistemological situations of autonomous and conventional application of different paradigms are modeled in the study of the phenomenon of social trust. In non-classical systems analysis, social trust is an internal characteristic of a society-system in the mode of its correct functioning. Social trust is one of the social order mechanisms. Social trust is also associated with subjective trust, ordering the interaction of subjects. Intersubjective interactions entail the legitimation of the social order. The transformation of social trust in the modern world is associated with trends in the reduction of the role of normativity, the fragmentation of socio-historical existence. There appears augmented reality, which contains to a certain extent the elements of pseudo-being. Subjective social trust can no longer support holistic meanings. In a situation of change in epistemological attitudes to determine the specifics of social trust, a systems analysis of weakly and highly non-equilibrium states of the intersystem environment is promising. Social order formulas are still inadequate for modeling intersystem environmental states (relations between states, blocs, unions, etc.). Within the framework of the post-non-classical systemic methodology, social trust refers to the signs of social holism. Social trust contributes to the emergence of stable intersystem conditions, the formation of a regulatory environment, which becomes an acting unit. Social trust in all philosophical-scientific paradigms is indicative of the rationality of social-historical existence.


Author(s):  
Fabian Andrés Llano

The role of the social sciences in the post-pandemic period will be to promote new ways of life. Given the threat posed to the human species, it is necessary to promote cultural exchanges that allow us to learn to live from inclusion. The new sociabilities and solidarities can converge in possibilities of recognizing different identities and symbolic repertoires that are generally excluded and marginalized. One way of reactivating these discussions and recognising these heritages and marginalities can be proposed through cultural tourism to reaffirm life. It is not a question of mass tourism that puts humanity at risk, but rather the promotion of literature, art, and religion, which can show the world forms of resistance, solidarity, and humanity in times of crisis. This cultural tourism requires the involvement of the intercultural and the heritage as the axis of articulation of historical reflection, with the aim of reactivating symbolic reparations under a cultural recognition of construction of identity processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 183449092110342
Author(s):  
Gang Huangfu ◽  
Lu Li ◽  
Zhen Zhang ◽  
Cheng Sheng

Cleanliness connotes cleanness, hygiene, and beauty. Physical cleanliness is also a metaphor for moral purity, as proposed in recent literature. However, cleanliness means not only physical cleanliness but also environmental cleanliness. The article proposes that environmental cleanliness and physical self-cleanliness may metaphorically influence immoral behaviors in the workplace, and their effects may be different. The current study conducted a 2 (environmental cleanliness: clean vs. dirty) × 3 (self-cleanliness: hands-cleansing vs. face-cleansing vs. non-cleansing) between-subjects field experiment with employees as participants in a Chinese enterprise. One-hundred-seventy-seven employees volunteered to participate in the experiment. It was found that a clean workplace, rather than physical self-cleansing, renders harsh moral judgment regarding immoral workplace behaviors. The participants were less willing to accept immoral workplace behaviors in a clean environment than in a dirty environment, while self-cleanliness (hands-cleansing or face-cleansing vs. non-cleansing) had no significant influence on employees’ moral judgments of immoral workplace behaviors. In addition, the significant effects of environmental cleanliness were found in all the ten dimensions of immoral workplace behaviors. The findings reveal the metaphorical association between environmental cleanliness and the concept of higher social moral norms, and confirm that environmental cleanliness is a key factor leading to moral metaphorical effects. This result provides unique insight to the social significance of environmental cleanliness, and has important implications to prevent immoral workplace behaviors. A theoretical framework is proposed to explain why environmental cleanliness is more likely to affect moral judgment involving organizational interests than self-cleanliness. Considering most previous research has been done with samples of college students, this study is especially valuable through a field experiment on actual employees.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-103
Author(s):  
Kuwi Hoi New ◽  
Mohamed Najib Abdul Ghafar

This study advances “transformation” as the role of education in changing individual lives, and offers it as central to a theoretical framework that enables one to understand college education and the development of students in institutions of higher learning. Using a qualitative analytical approach, with in-depth field interviews, this research proposes a model that clarifies the process by which students are transformed into fully potential individuals as a consequence of their college experience. Education transforms both societies and people in a particular direction by shaping and reshaping their patterns of thoughts, means of problem solving and ways of life. This will then contribute to further individual and social transformation. This study finds that the process of education enables significant changes in students by contributing to the social skills that transform their identity and ultimately their society.


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