Varieties of Moral Personality: Ethics and Psychological Realism
by Owen Flanagan
Harvard University Press, 1993 Paper: 978-0-674-93219-7 | Cloth: 978-0-674-93218-0 | eISBN: 978-0-674-03695-6 Library of Congress Classification BJ45.F53 1991 Dewey Decimal Classification 170.19
ABOUT THIS BOOK | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK Owen Flanagan argues in this book for a more psychologically realistic ethical reflection and spells out the ways in which psychology can enrich moral philosophy. Beginning with a discussion of such “moral saints” as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Oskar Schindler, Flanagan charts a middle course between an ethics that is too realistic and socially parochial and one that is too idealistic, giving no weight to our natures.
REVIEWS
Flanagan’s book prepares a framework for the balanced interchange between empirical studies and their varied interpretations. Rigorous in its search, the value of this book lies in its capacity to ferret out the conditional bonds between human psychology and ethical expectations.
-- E. Mark Stern Contemporary Psychology
This is a rich and elegantly written book… In Flanagan’s writing, no view is dismissed out of hand, none is taken over uncritically thereby exemplifying the same intellectual responsibility he advocates for moral psychology in general.
-- Thomas E. Wren Journal of Moral Education
This book is both stimulating and well-written. It covers a great deal of territory, but is always clear and usually fair. It can be read with profit by psychologists, ethicists, and political philosophers.
-- Roger Paden Review of Metaphysics
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
PART I
Ethics and Pshychological Realism
Prologue: Saints
1.
Ethics and Psychology
The Topic
Ethics, Psychology, and the Human Sciences
The Autonomy Thesis
2.
The Principle of Minimal Psychological Realism
Minimal Psychological Realism
Psychological Distance
Natural and Social Psychological Traits
Environmental Sensitivity
Natural Teleology and the Naturalistic Fallacy
3.
Psychological Realism and the Personal Point of View
The Argument from the Personal Point of View
Minimal Persons
Persons and Plans
Characters, Commitments, and Projects
Separateness and Impersonality
4.
Abstraction, Alienation, and Integrity
Strong Realism and Socially Fortified Persons
Abstraction and Kinds of Impartiality
Integrity, Alienation, and Virtues of Form
PART II
Liberal and Communitarian Philosophical Psychology
5.
Community and the Liberal Self
The Social Construction of Persons
The Classical Picture and the Primacy of Justice
Community, Friendship, and Flourishing
Appreciation, Emulation, and Self-Respect
Social Union
6.
Identity and Community
Actual and Self-Represented Identity
Identity, Self-Esteem, and Effective Agency
Self-Understanding, Encumbered Identity, and Psychological Realism
Self-Understanding and Like-Mindedness
Narrativity and Homogeneity
PART III
Moral Psychology
7.
Moral Cognition: Development and Deep Structure
Psychological Realism and Deep Structure
The Moral Judgment of the Child
Moral Consciousness, Speech Acting, and Opacity
Rules and Autonomy: The Marble Study
Games and Gender
Consequences and Intentions
The “Consciousness of Something Attractive”
8.
Modern Cognition: Development and Deep Structure
Stage Theory
Stage Holism and Globality
Moral Stage, Character Assessment, and Unified Justification
Development and Improvement
The Adequacy of the Highest Stage
9.
Virtue, Gender, and Identity
Identity and Morality
Psychological Realism and Gender
Two Different Global Voices?
Gestalt Shifts
10.
Gender Differences: The Current Status of the Debate
The No-Difference Claim
The Relation of Justice and Care
Further Empirical Questions
11.
Gender, Normative Adequacy, Content, and Cognitivism
Six Theses
The Separate-but-Equal Doctrine
The Integration Doctrine
The Hammer-Wrench Doctrine
Impartialism
Noncognitivist Care
Context-Sensitive Care
PART IV
Situations, Dispositions, and Well-Being
12.
Invisible Shepherds, Sensible Knaves, and the Modularity of the Moral
Two Thought Experiments about Character
Persons in Situations
Moral Gaps and the Unity of Character
Moral Modularity
13.
Characters and Their Traits
Traits and Traitology
Individual Trait Globality and Situation Sensitivity
The Trait-Inference Network and Evaluative Consistency
Evaluative Consistency, the Authoritarian Personality, and Authoritarian Behavior
Varieties of Moral Personality: Ethics and Psychological Realism
by Owen Flanagan
Harvard University Press, 1993 Paper: 978-0-674-93219-7 Cloth: 978-0-674-93218-0 eISBN: 978-0-674-03695-6
Owen Flanagan argues in this book for a more psychologically realistic ethical reflection and spells out the ways in which psychology can enrich moral philosophy. Beginning with a discussion of such “moral saints” as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Oskar Schindler, Flanagan charts a middle course between an ethics that is too realistic and socially parochial and one that is too idealistic, giving no weight to our natures.
REVIEWS
Flanagan’s book prepares a framework for the balanced interchange between empirical studies and their varied interpretations. Rigorous in its search, the value of this book lies in its capacity to ferret out the conditional bonds between human psychology and ethical expectations.
-- E. Mark Stern Contemporary Psychology
This is a rich and elegantly written book… In Flanagan’s writing, no view is dismissed out of hand, none is taken over uncritically thereby exemplifying the same intellectual responsibility he advocates for moral psychology in general.
-- Thomas E. Wren Journal of Moral Education
This book is both stimulating and well-written. It covers a great deal of territory, but is always clear and usually fair. It can be read with profit by psychologists, ethicists, and political philosophers.
-- Roger Paden Review of Metaphysics
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
PART I
Ethics and Pshychological Realism
Prologue: Saints
1.
Ethics and Psychology
The Topic
Ethics, Psychology, and the Human Sciences
The Autonomy Thesis
2.
The Principle of Minimal Psychological Realism
Minimal Psychological Realism
Psychological Distance
Natural and Social Psychological Traits
Environmental Sensitivity
Natural Teleology and the Naturalistic Fallacy
3.
Psychological Realism and the Personal Point of View
The Argument from the Personal Point of View
Minimal Persons
Persons and Plans
Characters, Commitments, and Projects
Separateness and Impersonality
4.
Abstraction, Alienation, and Integrity
Strong Realism and Socially Fortified Persons
Abstraction and Kinds of Impartiality
Integrity, Alienation, and Virtues of Form
PART II
Liberal and Communitarian Philosophical Psychology
5.
Community and the Liberal Self
The Social Construction of Persons
The Classical Picture and the Primacy of Justice
Community, Friendship, and Flourishing
Appreciation, Emulation, and Self-Respect
Social Union
6.
Identity and Community
Actual and Self-Represented Identity
Identity, Self-Esteem, and Effective Agency
Self-Understanding, Encumbered Identity, and Psychological Realism
Self-Understanding and Like-Mindedness
Narrativity and Homogeneity
PART III
Moral Psychology
7.
Moral Cognition: Development and Deep Structure
Psychological Realism and Deep Structure
The Moral Judgment of the Child
Moral Consciousness, Speech Acting, and Opacity
Rules and Autonomy: The Marble Study
Games and Gender
Consequences and Intentions
The “Consciousness of Something Attractive”
8.
Modern Cognition: Development and Deep Structure
Stage Theory
Stage Holism and Globality
Moral Stage, Character Assessment, and Unified Justification
Development and Improvement
The Adequacy of the Highest Stage
9.
Virtue, Gender, and Identity
Identity and Morality
Psychological Realism and Gender
Two Different Global Voices?
Gestalt Shifts
10.
Gender Differences: The Current Status of the Debate
The No-Difference Claim
The Relation of Justice and Care
Further Empirical Questions
11.
Gender, Normative Adequacy, Content, and Cognitivism
Six Theses
The Separate-but-Equal Doctrine
The Integration Doctrine
The Hammer-Wrench Doctrine
Impartialism
Noncognitivist Care
Context-Sensitive Care
PART IV
Situations, Dispositions, and Well-Being
12.
Invisible Shepherds, Sensible Knaves, and the Modularity of the Moral
Two Thought Experiments about Character
Persons in Situations
Moral Gaps and the Unity of Character
Moral Modularity
13.
Characters and Their Traits
Traits and Traitology
Individual Trait Globality and Situation Sensitivity
The Trait-Inference Network and Evaluative Consistency
Evaluative Consistency, the Authoritarian Personality, and Authoritarian Behavior