Download Can the sense of moral responsibility towards

IS STUDENTS' MORALITY A KEY
FACTOR IN TAKING SUSTAINABLE
ACTION?
Lavinia Ioana UDREA
[email protected]
Philosophy PhD Student
School of Politics, Int'l Relations & Philosophy,
Keele University.
CONTEXT

Why not think about morality as an instrument that can
boost students’ motivation to take sustainable actions
and reduce their ecological footprint?
TRANSPARENCY IN RESEARCH
This research is not placed on the political level,
but on a social level of activism, where action is not
motivated by political force,
but by social encouragement.

THE VALUE-ACTION GAP

Values might be a necessary, but not a sufficient,
condition, for the ‘right’ behaviour.
ADOPTING AN EXTERNALIST POSITION
EXTERNALISM states that
human
behaviour
is
influenced
by
external
factors we come across in our
existence which can facilitate
the realisation of our moral
judgments.
THE PROCESS OF HUMAN ACTION
* A belief/ moral judgement motivates when the agent has the disposition to be motivated .
THE MORAL STUDENT
A student that follows his moral
judgment will take into
consideration
the standard of morality
that dictates a common sense way
of acting
that guarantees positive
outcomes into the future.
A MOTIVATIONAL INSTRUMENT



Moral judgment = intrinsically motivating belief that find
their origin in a standard of morality.
A moral judgment is concerned with what a person ought
to do and is connected to a sense of moral responsibility.
In the cultivation of moral responsibility we will use moral
judgments because of their practicability to predict
human action.
THE EFFECT OF MORAL JUDGMENTS - MORAL MODE
• Moral mode describes the human mode that is motivated by a
moral judgment.
Moral judgement -> Moral Action
Students need to be educated to follow their moral judgements that
dictate them to take responsibility for their actions.
Moral Mode
Moral Judgment
+
+
+
+
desire +
+
-
-
+
-
-
+
+
+
+
+
Internal
Moral
motivation
(gets the world
al factors
to fit them)
External
Contextual
motivation
motivation
al
factors
Moral Action/ Result
A SHARED MORALITY



We must discuss a shared morality that students worldwide
would take into consideration.
An intrinsically motivating judgment is determined by common
sense and is easy to be recognized by the majority of people due to
the general acceptance that this judgment is good in itself.
Students will take sustainable action if they find their motivation
in a set of moral judgments that are based on common sense.
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS WORKSHOPS

The reason for organizing the environmental ethics workshops is
to give participants the chance to discover that their shared
values have positive implications for environmental
protection.
IS STUDENTS' MORALITY A KEY FACTOR IN
TAKING SUSTAINABLE ACTION?
Yes. In addition, I will emphasise the importance of
human relationships
that can facilitate the cultivation of moral motivation in
groups of students that are open to working together
for the well-being of the environment.
CONCLUSIONS
I am working to:
 develop an effective strategy that will
enable students to become aware of their
moral judgments
 provide
them with the information
necessarily to acquire specific moral
values that concern environmental
protection.

I hope that this exercise in applied
moral theory will offer activists and
policy makers alike grounds for an
alternative approach to
encouraging pro-environmental
behaviour.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!