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“KEEPING THE HEART”: NATURAL AFFECTION IN JOSEPH BUTLER'S APPROACH TO VIRTUE
Author(s) -
Moses Sarah
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9795.2009.00404.x
Subject(s) - virtue , compassion , affection , resentment , natural (archaeology) , action (physics) , forgiveness , economic justice , sympathy , conscience , the good life , moral psychology , environmental ethics , epistemology , moral reasoning , psychology , sociology , social psychology , philosophy , law , political science , theology , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , politics , history
This essay considers eighteenth‐century Anglican thinker Joseph Butler's view of the role of natural emotions in moral reasoning and action. Emotions such as compassion and resentment are shown to play a positive role in the moral life by motivating action and by directing agents toward certain good objects—for example, relief of misery and justice. For Butler, moral virtue is present when these natural affections are kept in proper proportion by the “superior” principles of the moral life—conscience, self‐love, and benevolence—which involve the capacity for reasonable reflection. For contemporary thinkers, Butler's approach suggests that natural emotion should not be viewed as the enemy of moral reasoning; in fact, it challenges ethicists to pay attention to and account for the significant role of the emotions in the moral life.