Moral Philosophy & Ethics Education

The Moral Philosophy & Ethics Education (MPEE) research focus area fosters collaborative research on foundational philosophical questions about moral goodness and moral cultivation. We have a particular focus on normative and applied ethics, the history of moral philosophy, and ethics education for the professions. Our research draws on the long tradition of work in these fields found in the Catholic intellectual and moral tradition.

We seek to support research that makes a valuable contribution to the University’s teaching and research life and which can form the basis of interdisciplinary projects on ethics and society with groups external to the University.

We host the Moral Philosophy & Ethics Education Annual Lecture.

People

Conveners

• Dr Annette Pierdziwol (Research Associate and Acting Assistant Director, Institute for Ethics & Society)
• Tim Smartt (Research Associate, Institute for Ethics & Society)

IES Researchers

• Professor Sandra Lynch (Professor of Moral Philosophy, Institute for Ethics & Society)
• Xavier Symons (Research Associate, Institute for Ethics & Society)

IES Affiliates

• Professor Renée Köhler-Ryan (Professor of Philosophy and Dean, School of Philosophy and Theology, Sydney)
• Dr Laura D'Olimpio (Senior Lecturer, School of Philosophy and Theology, Fremantle)

International Visiting Scholars

Christian B. Miller (2019)
Wake Forest University

John Haldane (2016, 2018)
University of St. Andrew’s

Candace Vogler (2017)
University of Chicago

Mary G. Gentile (2016)
University of Virginia

Recurring Events

2019 Program in the Philosophy of Character

Annual Lecture

Grants and Partnerships

• Australian Research Theology Foundation, 2018 – 2019
• Fulbright Specialist Program (Grant FSP-P000163), 2017. For more information, please see “Community in the Classroom” in the November 2017 edition of the Fulbright publication Hearts and Minds (p. 46 – 47)
• Partner on $2.2m John Templeton Foundation Project “Virtue, Happiness, & the Meaning of Life” at the University of Chicago, 2017 - 2018
• Mary Philippa Brazill Foundation, 2016

Recent Events

• Academic Symposium: Emotion, Virtue, and Public Life. Keynote addresses from Professor John Milbank and Associate Professor Alison Milbank (University of Nottingham). 18 January 2019.
• The Character Education and Social Leadership Conference. Keynote address by Professor John Haldane (University of St. Andrews). In partnership with The Scots College . 3 August 2018.
• Academic Symposium: Public Reason, Political Psychology and Good Disagreement. Keynote address from Professor John Haldane (University of St. Andrews). 18 July 2018.
• Book Launch: Media and Moral Education (Routledge) by Dr Laura D’Olimpio. Guest speaker: Scott Stephens (Editor of ABC Religion & Ethics). 5 June 2018.
• Moral Philosophy & Ethics Education Research Seminar. Semester One 2018, Semester Two 2018
• Pedagogy Workshop: Creating Community in the Classroom. Instructed by Professor Candace Vogler (University of Chicago). Funded by the Fulbright Commission and in partnership with the John Templeton Foundation project “Virtue, Happiness & the Meaning of Life” at the University of Chicago. 5 September 2017.
• Academic Symposium: Ethics, Virtue and the Catholic Tradition. Keynote address by Professor Candace Vogler (University of Chicago). Funded by the Fulbright Commission and in partnership with the John Templeton Foundation project “Virtue, Happiness & the Meaning of Life” at the University of Chicago. 30 August 2017.
• Moral Philosophy Masterclass: St Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant on Final Ends. Instructed by Professor Candace Vogler (University of Chicago). Funded by the Fulbright Commission and in partnership with the John Templeton Foundation project “Virtue, Happiness & the Meaning of Life” at the University of Chicago. 28 August 2017.
• The Notre Dame Virtue, Happiness, & the Meaning of Life Conference. Speakers: Professor Candace Vogler (University of Chicago), Professor Moira Gatens (University of Sydney), Professor Rick Benitez (University of Sydney), Professor Catriona Mackenzie (Macquarie University), and Dr Melissa Merritt (UNSW). Funded by the Fulbright Commission and in partnership with the John Templeton Foundation project “Virtue, Happiness & the Meaning of Life” at the University of Chicago. 25 August 2017.
• Public Lecture on Synderesis: The Seeds of Conscience in St Thomas Aquinas by Professor Candace Vogler (University of Chicago). Funded by the Fulbright Commission and in partnership with the John Templeton Foundation project “Virtue, Happiness & the Meaning of Life” at the University of Chicago. 23 August 2017.
• Public Lecture on How to Find Your Voice and Lead with Integrity by Professor Mary Gentile (University of Virginia). 22 September 2016.
• Academic Symposium: The Philosophical Moorings of Giving Voice to Values: In Conversation with Professor Mary Gentile. Keynote address from Professor Mary Gentile (University of Virginia) 19 September 2016.

Current Projects

The MPEE research focus area includes the following active research projects:

• Enriching University Ethics Education with Virtue Ethics: This project explores the connection between ethics education within a tertiary context and the concrete development of virtuous character. In particular, this project brings insights from the tradition of virtue ethics into dialogue with ethics education pedagogy. We are currently working with Professor Candace Vogler at the University of Chicago in connection to this project. The project builds on previous work in which we partnered with Professor Mary G. Gentile at the University of Virginia.
• Emotion, Habit & Social Life: This project aims at better understanding the importance of virtuous habits and emotions for our moral, social, and political lives. The project draws on approaches to the emotions and moral cultivation from the history of philosophy – especially early modern and eighteenth-century sentimentalist philosophy – to take up contemporary questions of political psychology.
• Moral Beliefs and Moral Lives: A Puzzle About Normative Guidance: What role do moral, philosophical, and religious beliefs play in our ordinary practices of thinking about what to believe and choosing what to do? Recent interdisciplinary works has suggested that the traditional importance attributed to these beliefs is dramatically overstated. This project addresses this debate and defends the position that our moral, philosophical, and religious beliefs are of immense practical importance for how we think and live.
• Applied and Professional Ethics: We have several current smaller projects in which we apply our expertise in moral philosophy and ethics education to specific professional domains such as business, law, sports, education and media.

Postgraduate Research

For queries about postgraduate research supervision within the IES’s Moral Philosophy and Ethics Education research focus area, please contact Dr Annette Pierdziwol .

• Publications

  Books & Chapters

  		Pierdziwol, A. (2018) “Cultivating Empathic Concern and Altruistic Motivation: Insights from Hume and Batson” in Hume’s Moral Philosophy and Contemporary Psychology, edited by Rico Vitz and Phil Reed. Routledge (2018)
  		D’Olimpio, L. (2017) Media and Moral Education: a philosophy of critical engagement. London: Routledge
  		Lynch, Sandra “Philosophy, Play and Ethics in Education.” In Philosophical Perspectives on Play. Malcolm MacLean, Wendy Russell, and Emily Ryall (Eds). Routledge, 2015)
  		Lynch, S. (2017). ‘Building Ethical Capacity.’ In Lavery, S, Chambers, D & Cain, G. (eds.), Service Learning: Enhancing Inclusive Education (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education), pp. 53-71, Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
  		Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Play: From Birth and Beyond Sandra Lynch, Deborah Pike & Cynthia A’Beckett (Eds.) Springer Publishing, 2016.
  		Kohler-Ryan, R. & Lynch, S. (2017) ‘Values Education and Christological personhood: philosophical and practical implications’ in Civil Society, Education and Human Formation. Janis (John) Ozolins (Ed). Routledge International Studies in the Philosophical Education: Oxon/New York, p163-177.
  		Handal, B., Lynch, S., Watson, K., Maher, M. & Hellyer, G. (2016). Teaching digital citizenship in higher education. In L. Dyson, W. Ng & J. Fergusson (Eds.), Mobile Learning Futures - Sustaining Quality Research and Practice in Mobile Learning; 15th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning mLearn (pp. 112-121). Sydney: The University of Technology Sydney. Available online from: http://iamlearn.org/wp-content/uploads/Proceedings_MLearn2016Final.pdf. ISBN 978-0-9875020-3-2
  		Pierdziwol, A. (2016) “The 'how' of Transformation in Levinas and Coakley” in Sarah Coakley and the Future of Systematic Theology, edited by J. McRandal. Fortress Press, 15-48.

  Journal Articles

  		D’Olimpio, L. (2016) ‘Trust as a virtue in Education’ Educational Philosophy and Theory, Special Issue ‘Trust and Schooling’ Ed. Bruce Haynes
  		Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics Volume 6, Issue 1 (2016) “Bioethics: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Euthanasia” Editors: Raymond Campbell, Mary Benedicta Maier, Sandra Lynch, Peter Smith https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/solidarity/

  Book Reviews

  Tim Smartt (2019) “Review of Sarah Moss, Probabilistic Knowledge”, Ethics vol. 129, no. 2: 430-438.