Chapter 3 - Views of Emotions in Moral Philosophy

Summary

Philosophers throughout history have pondered the relationship between emotions, rationality, and morality, and their implications for education. This chapter presents an overview of basic points and issues of contention within and across philosophical perspectives related to these topics. It considers particularly deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics, care ethics and other relational views, and existentialism. A significant part of the chapter explores virtue ethics, as virtue ethics is seen to philosophically undergird the majority of morally-oriented social and emotional learning and character education approaches in western societies . The role in virtue ethics of emotions in moral and social life overlaps in some cases with those found in the social sciences, as well as those seen within some eastern traditions. Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism will also be discussed here. The chapter thus summarises major insights and points of debate across philosophies related to educating emotions.