Carey Senior Faculty Fellow 2003-04
Darcia Narvaez (Psychology)
University of Notre Dame
The Nature of Moral Character: Integrating Psychological
Science with Philosophical and Theological Perspectives
My work at the Erasmus Institute will attempt to articulate a defensible
notion of moral character that is informed by the confluence of
three disciplines: (1) the emerging field of naturalized ethics,
which attempts to ground normative ethical theory in realistic accounts
of what is psychologically possible “for creatures like us”;
(2) recent developments in cognitive science and the social cognitive
theories of selfhood, personality and learning; and, (3) traditions
in Christian ethics that provide insight into understanding virtue
and personhood.
Psychology’s examination of the moral self results from the
desire to expand the explanatory reach of moral psychology beyond
its traditional mooring in Piagetian cognitive development and moral
judgment to include and account for a larger portion of moral being.
Philosophy’s move towards a naturalized ethics, in turn, results
from the desire to ground ethical theory in a defensible account
of moral psychology. Both trends point toward greater interest in
virtues, character and moral identity. Yet each operates almost
entirely in isolation from the other. I believe that important new
insights about character will only be possible when there is sustained
exploration at the interface of these disciplines.
Yet the integration of naturalized ethics and psychological literatures
is not the whole story, for it ignores the rich traditions of Christian
reflection on what it means to be “fully human.” I contend
that the resources of the Christian tradition will point to critical
features of human personhood that any adequate moral psychology
must consider. For example, two promising aspects of the Christian
tradition are noted here. The first is that the Trinitarian God
provides a key insight about the reality of human psychology, that
the true and flourishing self is found only in relationship and
community, that character is a lived experience with others. This
underlines the importance of civic virtue in moral character. The
second is that the moral “ought,” as Jean Porter has
shown, cannot be separated from the anthropological “is”
in the Thomistic theory of morality. Aquinas foresaw the necessity
for a naturalized ethics. These, among other elements and insights
of Christian ethics, will provide a theological context for developing
a modern character psychology.
My goal is to work out an integrative understanding of moral character
from three literatures: the perspective of naturalized virtue ethics,
the findings of psychological and developmental science, and Christian
conceptions of virtue and personhood. The Erasmus fellowship provides
a unique opportunity to draw together a coherent character psychology
from an immersion into multiple disciplines. The chance to explore
these issues with other fellows and faculty from relevant disciplines
provides a rare opportunity for me to integrate my theological training
with my more recent training in psychology.
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