ABSTRACT
The cognitive and neuro-sciences have made great strides in uncovering the nature of human psychobiology in recent years. Moral educators have yet to make much of their findings. The three theories presented here capitalize on recent research that has implications for building moral personalities and cultivating morally-adept citizens (Lapsley & Narvaez, 2004b; Narvaez & Lapsley, 2009).1 Adaptive Ethical Expertise blends deliberative and intuitive development for ethical expertise development. The Integrative Ethical Education model is a step-by-step model intended for integration into academic instruction at all levels. Triune-Ethics Theory, a more comprehensive theory of moral development rooted in neurobiological processes, has implications for moral education as well. All three theories address the development of moral personhood. Approaches to education for moral character are typically divided into two opposing views that are rooted in different philosophical paradigms (see Lapsley & Narvaez, 2006; Narvaez, 2006). One philosophical paradigm represents particularist claims regarding virtue with a focus on the agent and the deliberate cultivation of virtues or excellences (MacIntyre, 1981). Of primary concern is the nature of a good life and the characteristics necessary to live a good life (e.g., Anscombe 1958; Hursthouse 1999; McDowell 1997). The individual is mentored in virtue by the community and gradually takes on the responsibility for discovering and cultivating the virtues and values inherent in the self (Urmson, 1988). From this perspective nearly everything in life has moral meaning, from friend selection to leisure activities. Traditional character education emerges from this view (Wynne & Ryan, 1993), although it seems to have misappropriated how virtue is best cultivated (Kohn 1997a, 1997b; Narvaez, 2006), resulting in minimal outcome success (Leming, 1997). The contrasting view emphasizes universalist claims regarding justice and reasoning (Kant, 1949), addressing what is the right thing to do in a particular moral situation (e.g., Hare 1963; Rawls, 1971). Moral conduct is that which accords with applicable principles, derived from reasoning, for a particular situation and only in select slices of life.
