Being a Good Person: The Moral Emotions

I'm still reflecting on the interface of emotion and theology.

Ever since the Greeks, most of the Western philosophical and psychological moral/ethical traditions have tended to focus on moral reasoning. This cognitivist approach is manifested in most ethics classes. In this tradition, emphasis is placed on excellence in dissecting moral conundrums: Hans' wife is dying and she needs a very expensive medicine. However, the local pharmacist, a man who loves money, will not give the medicine to Hans. Hans, in his desperation, steals the medicine. Did Hans do the "right" thing?

But the Greeks focused not on moral reasoning but upon character and "virtue." And recently, psychologists are mining that wisdom in their research.

What is virtue? What does it mean to be a good person? More and more evidence is now suggesting this: Virtue is emotions.

More specifically, virtue is the product of what psychologists are now calling the "moral emotions." The moral emotions are:

1. Empathy: The ability to vicariously feel the pain of a friend or stranger.
2. Gratitude: The ability to feel that one is in receipt of a "gift" or "blessing."
3. Remorse: Heartache over hurting a person.
4. Moral Indignation: Anger in the face of cruelty and injustice.

These, then, are character and virtue. If you have these, you're a good person. If you don't have them you are evil. And I’m serious about that. The diagnostic feature of psychopaths, the face of pure evil in the world today (more technically diagnosed as "Antisocial Personality Disorder"), is a complete absence of the moral emotions: No empathy, no gratitude, no remorse, no indignation.

Thus, what psychologists are teaching us about virtue is this: Goodness is in the emotions. Do you want your kids to be good? Tune their moral emotions. Do you want to be good? Tune your own moral emotions.

How can we do this? Well, there are lots of ways. Here is a recent example from my life...

Last spring I took some students to Memphis for a conference. Late one afternoon a student and I wandered over to the National Civil Rights Museum. What an amazing experience. It is housed on the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. In fact, the tour ends on that fateful balcony. At one point in the exhibit you get to sit on a Montgomery bus next to Rosa Parks while the bus driver (this is all simulated) screams at you to move to the back.



Needless to say, I was emotionally changed. Right now, as I write, I'm looking at the poster I bought at the end of that day. It is a picture of the Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. I look at that poster every day.

Why do I tell you this? Because to be a good person I must attend to my moral emotions. And the Civil Rights Museum was good therapy. It tuned both my empathy and my moral indignation. I haven't been the same since.

So, if you are reading this, what kinds of "moral emotion therapy" have you found effective in your own life? What experiences? What movies? What books?