Is it appropriate to honor artists who have created great works but who have also acted immorally? In this article, after arguing that honoring involves identifying a person as someone we ought to admire, we present three moral reasons against honoring immoral artists. First, we argue that honoring can serve to condone their behavior, through the mediums of emotional prioritization and exemplar identification. Second, we argue that honoring immoral artists can generate undue epistemic credibility for the artists, which can lead (...) to an indirect form of testimonial injustice for the artists’ victims. Third, we argue, building on the first two reasons, that honoring immoral artists can also serve to silence their victims. We end by considering how we might respond to these reasons. (shrink)

What is the motivational profile of admiration? In this article, I will investigate what form of connection between admiration and motivation there may be good reason to accept. A number of philosophers have advocated a connection between admiration and motivation to emulate. I will start by examining this view and will then present objections to it. I will then suggest an expanded account of the connection between admiration and motivation, according to which, admiration involves motivation to promote the value that (...) is judged to be present in the object of admiration. Finally, I will examine the implications of this account for the use of admiration in education. (shrink)

Can we love and envy the same person at the same time? There is an overwhelming, cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary, consensus that love and envy are deeply incompatible. In this paper, I challenge this consensus, and focus in particular on the normative thesis that true love should be void of envy proper. I first propose an indirect argument. Because love and envy thrive in the same psychological conditions, it is not unlikely to feel envy toward the beloved. If we want ideals (...) that do not go against our psychological propensities, then we should not aim for a love that is wholly void of envy. I then propose a direct argument, in defense of two positive ideals. I argue that a certain kind of envy—emulative envy—can be beneficial to the loving relationship; in turn, a certain kind of love—wise love— which accepts the presence of envy, can be beneficial to our lives. Thus, that love and envy are so linked in our psychology is not something that we should merely tolerate, but wholeheartedly embrace. (shrink)

Admiration is thought to have essential functions for social interaction: it inspires us to learn from excellent models, to become better people, and to praise others and create social bonds. In intergroup relations, admiration for other groups leads to greater intergroup contact, cooperation, and help. Given these implications, it is surprising that admiration has only been researched by a handful of authors. In this article we review the literature, focusing on the definition of admiration, links to related emotions, measurement, antecedents, (...) and associated behaviors. We propose a conceptual model of admiration that highlights admiration’s function for approaching and emulating successful models, thus contributing to social learning at the interpersonal level and to cultural transmission at the group and societal level. (shrink)

Role models have been used since ancient times to develop character through fictional and historical stories, but only recently have the effects of such interventions been studied. Research has shown the emotions elicited when exposed to moral exemplars can trigger the motivation to progress morally. Aristotle advocated the teaching of virtues to children at a young age through habituation, which would gradually develop into phronesis-guided virtuosity. He considered what is now referred to as ‘role modelling’ as having a significant influence (...) on children through the emotion of emulation. Based on this, the following project uses a mixed-method design to examine how a virtue-led role modelling programme could be used in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by answering the following research questions: 1) How could an effective role modelling character education programme be developed in that country? 2) How could a role modelling character education be feasibly implemented there? The first stage involved conducting a role modelling intervention to teach school-appropriate virtues to students in a school setting in The Kingdom. The virtues were presented through role models with each model presented in a lesson divided into three sections Inspire–Action–Reflect. A qualitative + quantitative research design was used to examine the intervention’s efficacy and the school’s character education background. The results then led to a qualitative study exploring how virtues, role modelling and character education in general are currently being taught in schools in Saudi Arabia; also, how it could be developed further, and what the enablers and barriers might be in feasibly implementing the programme in relation to the educational culture and policy environment. Overall, the study has shown there is potential for developing and implementing a role modelling character education programme in the Region, provided certain factors are taken into consideration and used to increase such a programme’s efficacy. (shrink)