A Note on Moral Imagination

6 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2008

See all articles by Patricia H. Werhane

Patricia H. Werhane

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

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Abstract

Moral theories provide us with reasonable criteria for making moral judgments and evaluating decisions and actions. There is, however, one difficulty with approaching moral reasoning strictly from a "moral-theories" approach: Despite their knowledge of ethical theories, intelligent, reasonable people make moral mistakes. These mistakes cannot be attributed solely to ignorance or insensitivity or even merely to weakness of character, but rather to a paucity of moral imagination. Moral judgments involve a delicate balance of context, evaluation, projection of moral standards, and imagination. The linchpin of this process is a highly developed moral imagination that perceives the nuances of a situation, challenges the framework or scheme in which the event is embedded, and imagines how it might be different.

Excerpt

UVA-E-0114

A NOTE ON MORAL IMAGINATION

Moral theories provide us with reasonable criteria for making moral judgments and evaluating decisions and actions. However, there is one difficulty with approaching moral reasoning strictly from a “moral theories” approach: namely, that while most of us can learn about and think through the theories, we are less adept at applying them. Even intelligent reasonable people, despite their knowledge of ethical theories, make moral mistakes. These mistakes cannot be solely attributed to ignorance or insensitivity, nor even merely to weakness of character, but rather, I shall suggest, to a paucity of moral imagination.

To understand what is meant by moral imagination let us step back from the discussion of morality and think about how each of us experiences and deals with the world. A number of philosophers argue that each of us perceives and experiences the world from a point of view, a perspective or set of perspectives, a schema or series of schemas that serve as selective organizing, filtering, and focusing mechanisms. In other words, “our conceptual scheme mediates even our most basic perceptual experiences.” “Conceptual schemes . . . are ways of organizing experience; they are systems of categories that give form to the data of sensation; they are points of view from which individuals, cultures, or [historical] periods survey the passing scene.” These various conceptual schemes frame our perceptions. They focus, schematize, and guide the ways in which we recognize, react, and conceptually organize the world. In fact, we define the world relative to the scheme or schemes. Each of us has an idiosyncratic way of shaping our experiences that is “colored” by our emotions, interests, and focus. Nevertheless, the conceptual schemes we employ are socially learned and altered through language, religion, culture, and educational upbringing. They are shared ways of perceiving and organizing experience.

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Keywords: business ethics, ethical issues, ethics, alternative business issue or setting

Suggested Citation

Werhane, Patricia H., A Note on Moral Imagination. Darden Case No. UVA-E-0114, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1277039 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1277039

Patricia H. Werhane (Contact Author)

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States
434-924-4840 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty/werhane.htm

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