ABSTRACT

The past decade has witnessed a renaissance in scientific approaches to the study of morality. Once understood to be the domain of moral psychology, the newer approach to morality is largely interdisciplinary, driven in no small part by developments in behavioural economics and evolutionary biology, as well as advances in neuroscientific imaging capabilities, among other fields. To date, scientists studying moral cognition and behaviour have paid little attention to virtue theory, while virtue theorists have yet to acknowledge the new research results emerging from the new science of morality.

Theology and the Science of Moral Action explores a new approach to ethical thinking that promotes dialogue and integration between recent research in the scientific study of moral cognition and behaviour—including neuroscience, moral psychology, and behavioural economics—and virtue theoretic approaches to ethics in both philosophy and theology. More particularly, the book evaluates the concept of moral exemplarity and its significance in philosophical and theological ethics as well as for ongoing research programs in the cognitive sciences.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

part I|74 pages

A Science of Morality

chapter 2|20 pages

Virtue, Science, and Exemplarity

An Overview

chapter 3|14 pages

Relating Political Theory and Virtue Science

A Reflection on Human Dignity, Empathy, and the Capabilities Approach

part II|63 pages

Exemplarity, Science, and Virtue

chapter 5|16 pages

Exemplarism

Some Considerations

chapter 6|16 pages

Naturalizing Moral Exemplarity

Contemporary Science and Human Nature

part III|62 pages

Exemplarity, Science, and Virtue

chapter 9|15 pages

Hardwired for Drama?

Theological Speculations on Cognitive Science, Empathy, and Moral Exemplarity

chapter 11|12 pages

Types of Love and Types of Exemplars

Implications for Virtue Science

chapter 12|18 pages

The Virtues and Intellectual Disability

Explorations in the (Cognitive) Sciences of Moral Formation