Professional Ethics Education: Studies in Compassionate Empathy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction

   Pages 1-24

3. The Disambiguation of “Empathy”: Affective and Cognitive Conceptions

   Pages 25-43

4. A Conceptual and Empirical Sketch of Compassionate Empathy

   Pages 45-72

5. The Paradox of Compassionate Empathy's Moral Worth

   Pages 73-99

6. Compassionate Empathy, Moral Perception and Moral Conscience

   Pages 101-129

7. Intermezzo on Moral Emotion Education: Imagination, Imitation, and Reappraisal

   Pages 131-147

8. Compassionate Empathy in Professional and Practical Ethics Education

   Pages 149-174

9. Back Matter

   Pages 175-198

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1. 1 Practical Ethics Education at an Impasse Why is some practical ethics training a requirement of nearly all programmes in higher education? The short answer is that it is thought to be conducive to ethical decision-making and ethical behaviour. In recent years, the received idea that competency in moral reasoning implies moral responsibility “on the ground” has been the subject of critical attention. Today, researchers in moral education widely regard moral reasoning as but one among at least four dimensions of moral dev- opment alongside moral motivation, moral character, and moral sensitivity (Rest, 1986). Reflecting these changes, educationalists in the diverse fields of medicine, education, business, and applied ethics can now be found openly questioning how to take practical ethics education beyond the development of skills in moral r- soning. Frequently topping the list of suggested improvements is to provide s- port for empathic capacities of response. This work gives this proposal the systematic attention that it deserves. Contemporary applied ethics, and by extension practical and professional ethics education, can be considered an offshoot of the broad philosophical doctrine of moral realism. Moral realism takes many forms but in broad outline it is an est- lished meta-ethical position that emerged as a seemingly attractive alternative to another family of established philosophical positions that sometimes goes under the name of “expressivism”.

• Empathy
• Higher Education
• Moral Development
• Philosophy of Education
• Professional and practical ethics
• Promotion
• education
• ethics
• morality
• teaching

• Westfülische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany

  Bruce Maxwell

Policies and ethics