Attention, emotions and moral understanding: An inquiry into what it means for one to appreciate moral reasons
The goal of this dissertation project is to develop an account of moral understanding which can be illuminating for moral agency, moral development and moral experience. I think the crux of the debate on the nature of moral understanding has to do with the idea of appreciating moral reasons. I want to offer a comprehensive account of what it means for a person to appreciate moral reasons. In a nutshell, I argue that the one who can appreciate moral reasons proves to have a complex competency in the light of which she lives well. While a virtuous person is a paradigmatic example of one who has this competency, I insist on the idea that our appreciation of moral reasons is to be developed and cultivated. I suggest two ways in which this can be done: through emotional experience and with a form of attention which structures our moral experience.