ABSTRACT
Iris Murdoch describes the refinement of moral sensitivity as a solitary enterprise requiring introspective self-scrutiny. This chapter discusses this account to include an aspect she leaves aside: the influence of certain kinds of social factors-namely, friendship, life in a monastic community, and early Confucian self-cultivation-on moral sensitivity and its cultivation. It then explains the aspects of the account of social-cognitive psychologist Daniel Cervone, who explores the effects of knowledge structures and appraisal mechanisms on personality. The chapter can be read as an exercise in different ways of "picturing" moral sensitivity. The thought of Murdoch and Cervone as interpreted here can be viewed as interlocking pieces of a larger, empirically grounded picture that offers a fresh perspective on the nature and workings of human moral sensitivities-one that is sensitive to the social factors that shape our lives.
