Topics
We hope that this RFP will encourage the most creative new scholarship on virtues. Thus, we do not specify too rigidly in advance exactly which questions and topics may ultimately be pursued. However, it is nonetheless important that the enterprise is well-grounded and sensitive to a wide range of research questions and findings that are currently being discussed. Below, we propose seven broad overlapping themes as a framework for possible areas of inquiry. These may be seen as subthemes of this RFP’s central question: In what ways might the humanities and the sciences cooperate to develop richer understandings of virtue for modern societies?
1. Virtue and the Sciences: What do the insights into humans, that are emerging from the best scientific research, tell us about the nature of virtue? What contribution does science make to our appreciation and understanding of virtue? For example, what might neuroscience and psychology tell us about the difference between reckless risk-taking and, by contrast, moral courage? How can the human sciences and philosophy take account of the findings from scientific knowledge? In what ways do historical and philosophical notions of virtue influence scientific inquiry? Can we find innovative ways to model the impact of the virtues on individuals and societies?
2. Virtue and Evolutionary Biology/Genetics: Are there innate “learning modules” that incline growing children to be sensitive to cultural and religious codes dealing with more conservative-sounding virtues such as loyalty, respect for authority, and purity-sanctity? Have humans evolved with certain virtues or are they strictly cultural constructs? If there is an evolutionary basis for virtue, how does it function to protect or preserve the species? Are there identifiable virtues that are strictly cultural or that, by contrast, have clear biological bases?
3. Virtue and Society: In what ways do social contexts (political, economic, anthropological, legal, ecological) bear on, limit, or support the virtues? Why does virtue remain vital, necessary, and important to human society? What happens when societies abandon the virtues? What happens when societies distort and demean the virtues? What is the role of virtue in a democracy? How does science and scholarship on virtue inform social programs and public policies that touch on virtue? How do we think about virtues in political theory in view of the differentiated spheres of life in modern societies? How do we prevent distortion and misuse of the virtues?
4. Virtue and Human Development: What are the models of virtue that have been thought of in human history that could be revived, refined, and recontextualized for today? What new models might come from this effort? How do such models open up a variety of definitional issues? How do they relate to a variety of other concepts such as habits, character, morality in general, principle, and the intuitive aspects of life? What roles do exemplars play in instantiating virtues? How are virtues inculcated? What role does biology play in the formation of virtue? Brain processes? Psycho-sexual development? Spirituality and religious formation? Schooling? The family? The wider civil society?
5. Virtue and Modernity: How do we think about virtue in light of modernity and the relative autonomy of different spheres of life? Do cross-cultural studies of virtue reveal measurable differentiation from societies that invented the classic models of virtue in the past? How do history, anthropology and sociology work together to show that spheres of life are divided in ways that were utterly foreign to the contexts in which the virtues were first adumbrated and elaborated? In this context, is it best to think in the singular—a science of virtue—or, perhaps, in the plural, a science of the virtues? Does this research open up new ways of thinking about virtue or better enable us to analyze our own context? Are virtues contextually and temporally bound?
6. Philosophical and Theological Conceptions of Virtue: To what extent do virtues stand alone as moral entities or to what extent do they gain their fuller meaning in the context of the larger moral systems within which they are located? How do virtues relate to the larger narratives that shape a religious or cultural tradition? How do they relate to moral principles, e.g., the Golden Rule, the categorical imperative, various utilitarian principles, etc., if at all? Does a theory of virtue or virtues require a theory of goods in the premoral sense and if so, from what source (tradition, science, both) do we learn about what goods are worth pursuing? Can scientific research methods be useful in clarifying ancient debates on particular moral systems?
7. Specific Virtues: One potentially fruitful strategy for bringing many of these questions together might be to concretely examine one important virtue from a variety of angles. Candidates for comprehensive consideration might include courage, humility, purpose, honesty, altruism, duty, responsibility, thrift, tenacity, self-reliance, generosity, loyalty, or integrity. What is fundamental or foundational to human beings and to a decent human society about this virtue? How is this virtue inculcated? Who are the vital, living exemplars of this virtue? What are the social, psychological and biological impacts of this virtue? Why are such models or exemplars important? How is the virtue exemplified in the lives of individuals and in the lives of collectivities?
Again, these themes are meant to be illustrative and many lines of inquiry may prove valuable and lead to important insights. We also welcome proposals from other areas. Indeed, we would recommend that researchers keep in mind basic questions such as:
How are the virtues understood?
Why is virtue important?
Is a science of virtue a useful construct? Why or why not?
How do we know a virtue when we see one?
We encourage projects that demonstrate appropriate and reasonable degrees of attention to both sides of the understanding of science articulated above. Obviously, some proposals will emphasize one aspect more than the other, but all proposals should in some way attempt to bridge the space between the humanities and the natural sciences on the subject of virtue.
If you have any questions, we encourage you to contact:
Brenda Huskey,
Associate Director, Interdisciplinary Programs
The University of Chicago Arete Initiative
5848 South University Avenue
Chicago IL 60637
Email: virtues@uchicago.edu