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Increasing the Moral Sensitivity of Professionals

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Ethics Across the Curriculum—Pedagogical Perspectives

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Abstract

The ‘educators’ charge’ is to answer what our priority should be in educating college and university students. Despite shifts in terminology, a long-standing view is that educators should develop the moral sensitivity of their students to prepare them for both their private, civic lives as well as their professional roles and positions in institutions and society. In this chapter, I explain the development of the concept of moral sensitivity, and that it is a complex discriminative or diagnostic expertise that functions as guide for moral action: a sophisticated ability to ‘see’ or diagnose the right course of action based on extensive learning and practice. Ethics Across the Curriculum (EAC) Programs are uniquely poised to develop moral sensitivity because they provide (1) diverse perspectives and resources from a variety of fields, (2) the ability to focus on developing specific domains of capacities that underlie moral sensitivity, (3) the opportunity to practice and develop moral sensitivity over the span of several years, and (4) the opportunity for directed training of moral sensitivity under the expert and watchful eye of professors and other professionals. Institutions without a robust EAC program may also be able to initiate the moral sensitivity of their students through the use of a specially designed stand-alone Professional Ethics course. The educators’ charge is to develop moral sensitivity, which can be accomplished across a range of institutional opportunities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Hume referred to the capacity of moral sensitivity as ‘sympathy’ in the Treatise of Human Nature, but in later writings—most specifically in the Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals—he referred to it as ‘benevolence.’.

  2. 2.

    For additional analyses of the concept of moral sensitivity see Jordan (2007) and the literature review by Weaver et al. (2008). For extensive discussion of the concept and multi-factorial development of moral sensitivity, see Mower et al. (2015).

  3. 3.

    Although many situations require the accurate identification and comprehension of the mental states of others, not all do: some situations involve the analysis of potential risks and harms or mere knowledge of patterns (e.g., the long-term psychological effects of verbal abuse). Empathy is an important underlying capacity for moral sensitivity, but it is neither necessary nor sufficient for its operation. As a consequence, although empathy is an important component to study and cultivate, it should not be equated with moral sensitivity. See Smith et al. (2011) and Steuber (2006) for discussion of empathy as a capacity for accurate knowledge of the mental states of others as well as Coplan and Goldie’s (2014) edited volume for extensive discussion about the role of empathy.

  4. 4.

    Similarly, while compassion is an important underlying capacity for moral sensitivity, it is also neither necessary nor sufficient for the operation of moral sensitivity. Although compassion can be a helpful motivating force for action and support the ability to see the needs of others, accurate diagnoses of morally appropriate actions do not require such an emotive response. Further, a developed capacity of moral sensitivity may need to dampen the effects of compassion to avoid bias and compassion fatigue for moral appropriateness. For a contrasting view on the necessity of compassion within the professions, see Maxwell (2008).

  5. 5.

    See for example Englehardt (2018), Davis (2018), Robison (2018), Donovan (2018), Frey and Cruz (2018), Newton (2018), Baker (2018), Herkert and Ellision (2018), and Woodson and Zhu (2018).

  6. 6.

    For detailed discussion about how to assess the development of the cognitive underpinnings of moral sensitivity see Thoma (2015).

  7. 7.

    For discussion of how moral sensitivity can be assessed longitudinally over the span of a student’s education see Jameson et al. (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Mississippi, Oxford, USA

    Deborah S. Mower

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  1. Deborah S. Mower
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Correspondence to Deborah S. Mower .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Utah Valley University, Provo, UT, USA

    Elaine E. Englehardt

  2. Western Michigan University (Emeritus), Kalamazoo, MI, USA

    Michael S. Pritchard

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Mower, D.S. (2018). Increasing the Moral Sensitivity of Professionals. In: Englehardt, E.E., Pritchard, M.S. (eds) Ethics Across the Curriculum—Pedagogical Perspectives. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78939-2_5

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