MORAL EMOTIONS OF SHAME AND GUILT AND THEIR SUBSTANTIAL LINK WITH THE CONCEPT OF VIRTUE AND MORAL OBLIGATION
Abstract
Beyond any doubt, emotions and affects represent one of the key aspects that identify and govern human behaviour. This project focusses on those emotions, which are referred to as moral emotions, and, specifically, on the feelings of shame and guilt.
Consequently, the emotions of shame and guilt cannot be conceived as states of mind reflecting perceptions of the world, but rather as an already constituted mental construct of morally emotional world, which is taking shape by "categorizing" affects, while applying socio-cultural emotional patterns. This project intends to focus on the ways, in which the moral experience of shame and guilt is constituted.
In line with current research (Barrett, 2017), guilt will be derived from the concepts of moral obligation and virtue and their correlative cultural and emotional patterns. The purpose of this study is research into the conceptualization and constitution of the awakening moral emotions of shame and guilt, which, according to new results in the field of empirical research, are becoming very important interdisciplinary phenomena.
The aim will be to show the key interpretative and substantial link between the feeling of shame and the concept of virtue as well as, on the other hand, between the feeling of guilt and the concept of moral obligation. The authors of the project aim to open up a debate on morality, which would transcend the boundaries of one scientific field, while making philosophical reflection one of the fundamental cornerstones in terms of project methodology.
Considering applied research the radicalization (provided by Police Academy CR) a prisoned radicals justify theirs morality base on concept of virtue rather than on deontology. Their moral justifications is not primarily associated with laws and rules but rather with social-cultural standards shaping ethical terms like virtue, proud and honesty.