Making Sense of People by Samuel Barondes

Author:Samuel Barondes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pearson Education Limited (US titles)
Published: 2016-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Different Cultures, Common Values

But instincts and emotions just provide the raw materials for our morality. Cultures provide the critical details. As Darwin pointed out:

[A]fter the power of language had been acquired, and the wishes of the community could be expressed, the common opinion how each member ought to act for the public good, would naturally become in a paramount degree the guide to action … [F]or the social instinct … is, like any other instinct, greatly strengthened by habit, and so consequently would be obedience to the wishes and judgment of the community.13

Such wishes and judgments of the community vary greatly from culture to culture, and this was the reason Allport felt obliged to eliminate the concept of character from the scientific study of personality. But a group of psychologists led by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman have challenged that decision.14 In a study of the major Eastern and Western religious and philosophical traditions, they found universal admiration for a large number of character strengths. The strengths that are highly valued in all cultures were combined into six categories, which they call the six core virtues:

• Temperance—Strengths such as self-control and prudence that protect against excess

• Courage—Strengths such as bravery and persistence that help accomplish goals in the face of opposition, external or internal

• Humanity—Strengths such as kindness and love that involve tending to and befriending others

• Justice—Strengths such as fairness and citizenship that contribute to community life

• Wisdom—Strengths such as open-mindedness and love of learning that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge

• Transcendence—Strengths such as awe and spirituality that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning

Other researchers have also recognized universally admired character strengths, and Robert Cloninger, a psychiatrist, has developed his own way of categorizing them. In his view, character has three main components, which he calls self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence.15 Self-directedness refers to control of the self by being purposeful, responsible, and resourceful. It overlaps with temperance and courage. Cooperativeness refers to forming mutually beneficial relationships with other people by being empathic, compassionate, and principled. It overlaps with humanity and justice. Self-transcendence refers to awareness of our participation in the world as a whole by being spiritual, wise, and idealistic. It overlaps with wisdom and transcendence.

But recognizing the universal admiration of core virtues doesn’t preclude variations in cultural emphasis. In fact, obvious differences exist in the degree to which cultures prize particular virtues. In thinking about a person’s character, it is important to pay attention to the way someone expresses both universal and culture-based values.

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