Emotional Skillfulness and Virtue Acquisition

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors offer a sketch of the state of the art as concerns existing accounts of virtue acquisition in relation to automaticity. In particular, the chapter focuses on the so-called “skill model,” which the authors aim to improve by questioning its rather common underlying dualistic picture of the mind. Then, the authors propose an account of skillful emotions by identifying the features that make them both automatic and embedded in an intelligent practice. Finally, the authors show how this view can help the skill model by offering a better description of emotion shaping in virtue acquisition. By doing so, they contend that emotions contribute autonomously and actively to the skillfulness of the habits in which they are embedded.

Examining Phronesis Models with Evidence from the Neuroscience of Morality Focusing on Brain Networks

“…Unlike the Jubilee Model focusing on functional constituents of phronesis, the Aretai model is more interested in the qualitative facet of phronesis in moral development. This model defines phronesis as a virtue that involves being an expert in deliberative, affective, and motivational skills in moral domains (De Caro et al 2021). Unlike the traditional virtue theory, which was primarily interested in individual virtues, this model emphasizes the role of phronesis as a domain-general virtue that manifests various domains.…”

“…Likewise, phronesis plays a central role in optimal moral functioning and flourishing that individual intellectual capacities cannot do as proposed by phronesis eliminativism (Kristjánsson 2017). The Aretai model inventors argue that phronesis consists of multiple components of ethical expertise supported by psychological research, so the raised concerns could not be an issue (De Caro et al 2021;Vaccarezza et al 2023). Although it might still be unsettled whether they have sufficiently addressed the concerns raised by phronesis eliminativism, they have significantly elaborated their arguments to support the validity of their models.…”

“…In virtue ethics, some works have proposed that evidence from neuroscience, besides traditional psychology, can provide insights into philosophical inquiries (Han 2016;Navarini 2020;Han 2023). Virtue ethicists interested in phronesis have referred to nonneuroscientific psychological studies, e.g., the Neo-Kohlbergian model of moral functioning and ethical expert model, to support the validity of their phronesis models as overviewed above (Kristjánsson 2013;De Caro et al 2021;Darnell et al 2022). In addition to such psychological studies, neuroscientific works can provide additional supporting evidence.…”

“…Furthermore, the evidence can support the conceptual validity of the Aretai Model, which emphasizes phronesis as ethical expertise. According to the virtue molecularism constituting the basis for the Aretai Model, cultivation of phronesis requires becoming sensitive towards moral features of current situations with sophisticated cognitive and affective skills (De Caro et al 2021). As demonstrated by the core networks involving moral functioning, these features proposed by the Aretai Model correspond to the psychological processes addressed by the three networks, i.e., the DMN, SR, and CEN.…”

“…While the Jubilee Model is primarily concerned with the functional components constituting phronesis, the Aretai Centre Model explains the cultivation of phronesis in terms of mastering ethical expertise (De Caro et al 2021;Vaccarezza et al 2023).…”