Abstract

VILLAMIL PINEDA, Miguel Ángel. Emotions and Ethics. Contributions to the development of an integral ethics. Franciscanum [online]. 2011, vol.53, n.156, pp.171-210. ISSN 0120-1468.

In the contemporaneous ethical reflection about the moral experience, a renovated interest is perceived due to emotions and their influence in human behavior. This emphasis demands a critical examination involving, both, an intellectual and ethical focus from where it can be affirmed that if a person is morally good, he/she rationally knows the moral principles and acts accordingly. It also demands to reconsider the theories that define emotions as behavioral irrational ways that do not contribute to a strong basis for ethics. In contrast to the intellectual model, other voices have arisen to affirm that morality is not located so much in absence of principles or in their knowledge, but in caring for moral sensibility; emotions posses a "sui generis' intelligence, which is vital in order to face issues arising from finding the meaning of life in a community, or personally. The new argument scenario offers two challenges, which will be discussed in this article: First, summarizing the state of the art dealing with ethical reflection regarding emotions. Second, carrying on a reflection about the emotional experience that allows to explain the constitutive aspects of the emotional phenomenon; witnessing the connections between emotion and morality; establishing a critical dialogue with evaluated theories, and pointing out the estimates of integral ethics.

Keywords : Emotional experience; morality; ethics; intentionality; emotional intelligence.

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