| Instructor | Steven Horst, Department of Philosophy |
| Meeting times | MW 11-12 plus small discussion groups |
| Room | Fisk |
| Office Hours | W 1:30-4 |
| Office | Russell House 207a |
| Phone | (860) 685-3645 |
| shorst@wesleyan.edu |
| Group | Time | Place | Instructor | Comments |
| Philosophical Analysis | M 4:15-5:30 | E. Springer
espringer@wesleyan.edu |
For philosophy majors and others interested in careful philosophical analysis. | |
| Clinical Psychology | F 11-12 | R. Englehardt | ||
| Christian Spirituality | Th 7-8:30 | J. Stickney | ||
| FYI | M 7-8:30 | S. Horst
shorst@wesleyan.edu |
Open only to first-year students. |
Moral psychology, as the name suggests, is concerned with issues that lie at the intersection of psychology and ethics. It is a term that is used somewhat differently in different contexts. In academic psychology, it tends to refer to theories of the development of moral beliefs, such as those put forward by psychologists such as Piaget and Kohlberg. In philosophy, it has traditionally indicated the study of human psychology as it is relevant to moral questions, such as the nature of the good life for human beings and how to attain it in light of facts about our own psychological makeup, such as the presence of the various passions. Moral psychology in this latter sense was a central part of the philosophical enterprise in classical antiquity (for example, in the works of Plato and Aristotle), and in the Middle Ages. It has occupied a much less central role in modern ethics, though it is currently enjoying a significant renaissance in academic circles.
As I shall use the term here, moral psychology is the study of the soul (or, if that term carries too many metaphysical overtones, of human psychology) with an eye towards its good, rather than towards its purely theoretical study or prediction and control. A thoroughgoing study of moral psychology would involve at least three components:
Of course, individual writings might contribute to the overall project of moral psychology by contributing to just one of these three components without themselves presenting a comprehensive moral psychology. For example, any ethical theory will have some implications for moral psychology because it will have substantive consequences for what is deemed to be a good life. Likewise, a theory of the nature of decision-making or of the emotions may have consequences for how to go about seeking to better oneself in morally relevant ways even if the psychological theory does not itself have implications for ethical theory.