essay on moral imagination

Kirk on Moral Imagination

Mar 19, 2007

The moral imagination is the principal possession that man does not share with the beasts. It is man’s power to perceive ethical truth, abiding law, in the seeming chaos of many events. Without the moral imagination, man would live merely day to day, or rather moment to moment, as dogs do. It is the strange faculty—inexplicable if men are assumed to have an animal nature only—of discerning greatness, justice, and order, beyond the bars of appetite and self-interest.

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Moral imagination: essays.

Spanning many historical and literary contexts,  Moral Imagination  brings together a dozen recent essays by one of America’s premier cultural critics. David Bromwich explores the importance of imagination and sympathy to suggest how these faculties may illuminate the motives of human action and the reality of justice. These wide-ranging essays address thinkers and topics from Gandhi and Martin Luther King on nonviolent resistance, to the dangers of identity politics, to the psychology of the heroes of classic American literature.

Bromwich demonstrates that moral imagination allows us to judge the right and wrong of actions apart from any benefit to ourselves, and he argues that this ability is an innate individual strength, rather than a socially conditioned habit. Political topics addressed here include Edmund Burke and Richard Price’s efforts to define patriotism in the first year of the French Revolution, Abraham Lincoln’s principled work of persuasion against slavery in the 1850s, the erosion of privacy in America under the influence of social media, and the use of euphemism to shade and anesthetize reactions to the global war on terror. Throughout, Bromwich considers the relationship between language and power, and the insights language may offer into the corruptions of power.

Moral Imagination  captures the singular voice of one of the most forceful thinkers working in America today.

Moral Imagination

• David Bromwich

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Moral Imagination: Essays

Compelling essays from one of today's most esteemed cultural critics

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Spanning many historical and literary contexts, Moral Imagination brings together a dozen recent essays by one of America’s premier cultural critics. David Bromwich explores the importance of imagination and sympathy to suggest how these faculties may illuminate the motives of human action and the reality of justice. These wide-ranging essays address thinkers and topics from Gandhi and Martin Luther King on nonviolent resistance, to the dangers of identity politics, to the psychology of the heroes of classic American literature. Bromwich demonstrates that moral imagination allows us to judge the right and wrong of actions apart from any benefit to ourselves, and he argues that this ability is an innate individual strength, rather than a socially conditioned habit. Political topics addressed here include Edmund Burke and Richard Price’s efforts to define patriotism in the first year of the French Revolution, Abraham Lincoln’s principled work of persuasion against slavery in the 1850s, the erosion of privacy in America under the influence of social media, and the use of euphemism to shade and anesthetize reactions to the global war on terror. Throughout, Bromwich considers the relationship between language and power, and the insights language may offer into the corruptions of power. Moral Imagination captures the singular voice of one of the most forceful thinkers working in America today.

Awards and Recognition

• Shortlisted for the 2015 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, Pen American Center
• One of The Times Higher Education Supplement’s Books of the Year 2014, chosen by Jane Shaw

"A historically informed examination of moral imagination and human sympathy, as seen through the lives of such figures as Edmund Burke, Mohandas K. Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."—Sewell Chan, New York Times

"[T]hey shed much light on the frame of mind in which Bromwich approached the ambiguous figure of Burke in his biography, and even more on how Bromwich is relevant to the politics of our own times. . . . Those who read these essays alongside Bromwich's account of Burke's intellectual and political career will find their eye caught by three topics, all with Burkean overtones, deeply relevant to the present, and handled with Bromwich's characteristic sharpness. . . . Bromwich is particularly sharp on the way government spokesmen wrap the realities of massacre, torture, and gratuitous cruelty in euphemism. . . . The central essays of Bromwich's book are more meditative, and none the worse for it. . . . The final chapter, 'Comments on Perpetual War,' displays Bromwich's skills as a critic in the tradition of Hazlitt and Orwell."—Alan Ryan, New York Review of Books

"[A] rich and memorable book. . . . Bromwich appears here in his well-established role as a public intellectual, as civilized as he is trenchant, observing with a mixture of dark wit and moral exasperation diverse aspects of the contemporary American scene. He has a good essay, both horrifying and funny, on the destruction of privacy in the modern United States; a remarkable essay on the psychopathology of political ambition; a fine piece questioning 'cultural identity' as a liberal shibboleth."—Seamus Perry, Times Literary Supplement

" Moral Imagination brings together a dozen pieces published over the past twenty years in which [Bromwich] mostly explores the minds of people he admires. There is a particularly fine discussion of Lincoln and the constitutional necessity of the Civil War. There are also spirited attacks on the culture of celebrity and on the chicanery of Dick Cheney, which will have most readers whooping."—Ferdinand Mount, London Review of Books

"Bibliophiles, scholars and concerned citizens—all will find provocation and enlightenment here."— Kirkus Reviews

"Bromwich delivers a probing and incisive collection of essays about culture, politics, imagination, and the war on terror. . . . Moral Imagination is an eloquent, demanding, and fiercely polemical work likely to appeal most to independent-minded readers and scholars alike."—Lee Polevoi, Foreword Reviews

"Bromwich as a stylist belongs to the older, better class. . . . [ Moral Imagination ] is clearly a product of . . . bracing self-reflection."—Helen Andrews, Books & Culture

" Moral Imagination is an important book. . . . [T]he patient reader will be well rewarded by the author's many insights into some of our nation's most pressing concerns."—Walter G. Moss, History News Network

"In this collection of essays, Bromwich eschews identity politics and multiculturalism from a 'left' perspective, preferring instead the concept he articulates with the book's title: 'moral imagination.'. . . These essays are demanding but well worth the effort."— Choice

"Bromwich's book of essays is rich, well-cooked and a most satisfying dish."—Bob Lane, Metapsychology Online Reviews

"David Bromwich is the most penetrating cultural critic in contemporary America. No one writes more shrewdly or eloquently about the pathologies of our public discourse. His essays are grounded in a firm grasp of modern intellectual history, but he wears his learning lightly. Moral Imagination reveals Bromwich's extraordinary combination of aesthetic elegance and ethical seriousness, as he dissects the insidious alliance of identity politics, publicity culture, and imperial fantasy—even while he reminds us of the forgotten strengths of our own political tradition. This is a book to treasure for its prose as well as for the power of its insights."—Jackson Lears, author of Rebirth of a Nation

"If multiculturalism were to shed its aspirations to mere correctness, if it were to get an elaboration that kept faith with the liberal vitalities of individual conscience and fulfillment, it would need to give moral imagination a more central role. That is the integration that David Bromwich seeks to attain in these essays as he shrewdly and eloquently gazes upon the past and present of American politics, the speeches and actions of figures ranging from Burke through Lincoln to King and Gandhi, and the prose and poetry of Wordsworth and Dickinson, Woolf and Whitman, and Emerson and Thoreau. Politics is made a loftier subject by such a humane literary scrutiny, even as literature is made more deeply central to our thinking lives."—Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia University

"David Bromwich is one of the most incisive writers in America today. In his rapid, straightforward, and convincing style, he has written an intellectually powerful and morally compelling book, one that is not only urgently needed in the current climate but also has permanent value."—Edward Mendelson, author of The Things That Matter

"For several decades, David Bromwich has stood out among American critics as one of the most daring and knowledgeable challengers of received opinion and orthodoxies. This fresh and timely selection of essays effectively conveys the values which inform Bromwich's provocative cultural and political criticism, and will introduce his bold and cogent moral imagination to a wide readership."—Margery Sabin, Wellesley College

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moral imagination

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• The Russel Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal - The Moral Imagination

moral imagination , in ethics , the presumed mental capacity to create or use ideas, images, and metaphors not derived from moral principles or immediate observation to discern moral truths or to develop moral responses. Some defenders of the idea also argue that ethical concepts, because they are embedded in history , narrative, and circumstance, are best apprehended through metaphorical or literary frameworks.

(Read Peter Singer’s Britannica entry on ethics.)

In his The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith described an imaginative process essential not only to understanding the sentiments of others but also to moral judgment. Through an imaginative act, one represents to oneself the situation, interests, and values of another person, generating thereby a feeling or passion. If that passion is the same as that of the other person (a phenomenon Smith refers to as “sympathy”), then a pleasing sentiment results, leading to moral approval. As individuals across society engage their imaginations, an imaginative point of view emerges that is uniform, general, and normative. This is the viewpoint of the impartial spectator, the standard perspective from which to issue moral judgments.

The Anglo-Irish statesman and writer Edmund Burke was perhaps the first to use the phrase, “moral imagination.” For Burke, moral concepts have particular manifestations in history, tradition, and circumstance. In Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), he suggested that the moral imagination has a central role in generating and recollecting the social and moral ideas that, when crystallized into custom and tradition, complete human nature , stir the affections, and connect sentiment with understanding. In the early 20th century, and with a nod to Burke, the American literary critic Irving Babbitt proposed the moral imagination as the means of knowing—beyond the perceptions of the moment—a universal and permanent moral law. Assuming a distinction between the one and the many, Babbitt contended that the absolutely real and universal unity could not be apprehended; rather, one must appeal to imagination to develop insight into stable and permanent standards to guide one through constant change. That imagination might be cultivated through poetry, myth , or fiction was an idea of Babbitt later taken up by the American social critic Russell Kirk.

Since the late 20th century, philosophers, including business ethicists, also have shown interest in moral imagination. Mark Johnson, for example, argued that moral understanding relies on metaphorical concepts embedded in larger narratives. Moreover, ethical deliberation is not the application of principles to specific cases but involves concepts whose adaptable structures represent types of situations and modes of affective response. Furthermore, moral conduct demands that one cultivate one’s perception of the particularities of individuals and circumstances and develop one’s empathetic abilities. To those ends, the appreciation of literature has an essential role.

In business ethics , Patricia Werhane suggested that the moral imagination is necessary to ethical management. Beginning with the recognition of the particularity of both individuals and circumstances, the moral imagination allows one to consider possibilities that extend beyond given circumstances, accepted moral principles, and commonplace assumptions.

How creativity can help us cultivate moral imagination

Senior Lecturer School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University

Disclosure statement

Elizabeth Reid Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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She had quite forgotten the Duchess by this time, and was a little startled when she heard her voice close to her ear. “You’re thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can’t tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in a bit.” “Perhaps there isn’t one,” Alice ventured to remark. “Tut tut child!” said the Duchess. “Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.”

~ Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland, 1865.

We’re all familiar with the word empathy. We may not be as familiar with the name of the radical woman who brought the word into the English language.

Violet Paget (1856 – 1935) was a Victorian writer who published under the more gender-ambiguous Vernon Lee. Known as one of the cleverest women in Europe, as well as for her preference for dressing a la garconne , Lee coined the term “empathy” after noticing the physical absorption of her partner, Clementina Anstruther-Thompson, while viewing a painting.

According to Lee, Clementina (or Kit, as she was known) was “in feeling” with the painting. To describe this embodied process of appreciating the arts, Lee translated the German term einfuhlung into “empathy”.

Lee’s ideas resonate powerfully with the increasing interest today in how empathy is connected to creativity. Experiencing and enhancing creativity is one of the ways we can understand ourselves and others – body and mind. The poetic 19th century term for this process, with which Vernon Lee would have been familiar, is “moral imagination”.

To imagine is to form a mental image, to think, to believe, to dream, to picture. It is both idea and ideal. Our dreams can take us from small acts of empathy to noble visions of equality and justice. Imagination charges the flame: it puts us in touch with our creativity, our life force. In a world of increasing global conflict, imagination has never been more important.

“The great instrument of moral good is the imagination,” wrote the poet Shelley in his Defence of Poetry (1840) .

The great secret of morals is love, or a going out of our own nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own. To be greatly good, we must imagine.

Read more: Friday essay: can looking at art make for better doctors?

Moral imagination is creative. It helps us to find better ways of being. It’s a form of empathy that encourages us to be kinder and more loving to ourselves and each other. “Beauty is truth, truth, beauty – that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know,” declared the poet Keats. “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affection and the truth of the imagination.”

Our moral imagination can put us in touch with all that is truthful and beautiful in the world, in ourselves, and in each other. “All worthy things, all worthy deeds, all worthy thoughts, are works of art or of imagination”, wrote W. B. Yeats in his preface to the poetry of William Blake.

Shelley believed that we can exercise our moral imagination “in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb”.

A moral workout

We can all engage in some moral exercise.

Pick up some poetry. You don’t have to lift a heavy-weight tome. Whether you read it online or in a dusty old volume, Shelley argued that poetry is capable of “awakening and enlarging the mind itself by rendering it the receptacle of a thousand unapprehended combinations of thought.” It is “the most unfailing herald, companion, and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution.”

Rep your reading. Doing your reps has never been so easy. Just read it again. Vernon Lee suggested in her book Hortus Vitae (1903):

The greatest pleasure of reading consists in re-reading. Sometimes almost in not reading at all, but just thinking or feeling what there is inside the book, or what has come out of it, long ago, and passed into one’s mind or heart, as the case may be.

Alternatively, a more energetic “close reading” might engender critical empathy , a deliberate method of thinking, aimed at being value-neutral.

Build your movie muscle. Tap into the big magic of creativity via the movies. Take regular visits to a relaxing moral realm to build up some strength, and don’t fear becoming a couch potato. Writer Ursula Le Guin suggests that while viewing a story on screen is a passive exercise, it still engages us in another world, where, for a while, we can imagine ourselves to be.

Let art energise you. View and display inspiring and thought-provoking artworks. Vernon Lee claimed that spectators empathise with works of art when they call up memories and associations. This can cause bodily changes in posture, such as standing still or slowing our breathing.

Let music move you. To en-chant means “to infuse with song”. While music can be wordless, it infuses us with empathy. According to recent (2018) research published in Frontiers journal, “music is a portal into the interior lives of others”. Dance can also contribute to what has been conceptualised as “ kinesthetic empathy” . Spectators can internally mimic or simulate the movement of dancers.

Give your own creativity a work-out. It doesn’t matter how out of shape you are. Whether it’s painting, writing, music making, singing, dancing, crafting - “the Possible’s slow fuse is lit by the Imagination,” wrote poet Emily Dickinson .

The arts are alchemical, transformative processes. Being creative helps us to find new, true, better ways of being. “We may behave imaginatively; envisioning and eventually creating what is not yet present,” wrote Mary Richards, author of Opening our Moral Eye .

Today’s current populiser of empathy, Brene Brown , has argued that creativity is vital in order to “dare greatly”. Whether it’s a painting, or a patchwork quilt, when we create something, we step into the future, we trust in the destiny of our own creations. We learn to trust that we can create our own reality.

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To tackle the world’s big problems, this is the kind of imagination you must have

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About 20 miles east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and home to the University of Virginia, Charlottesville was a town divided in the early 1980s.

The locals, many of whom lived in an economically depressed area, saw us students as rich and privileged. Some of them worked at UVA, where they seemed either invisible to students or served as objects of ridicule. In the fall of my second year at UVA, a fraternity threw a party asking everyone to dress like a local. The very idea hurt me to think about, and I didn’t attend. But I also didn’t protest.

Then, around Thanksgiving, I chanced upon a flyer inviting students to donate Christmas dinner and toys to a family in need. At least this was an opportunity to do something positive. My roommate and I decided to host a holiday party and asked everyone to bring food and a toy. As drinks flowed, a large pile of playthings and foodstuffs burgeoned beneath our scraggly Christmas tree.

The next day, we packed my roommate’s red car with a veritable Christmas feast, complete with a turkey and all the trimmings, and a big Santa bag full of toys for our “family.” We took off, a bit worse for wear but filled with Christmas spirit and a drive to be of service.

In less than an hour, we arrived in another world: dirt roads and trailer parks, a couple of gas stations, a convenience store with a barely visible street sign. We pulled into a gas station to ask for directions. I had trouble understanding the attendant and was mortified to ask him to repeat himself, though I wondered whether he had trouble understanding me as well.

Without a map, my roommate and I lost our bearings a second time. We pulled to the side of the road, stopping a man clad in overalls. To our request, he responded, “Go down that road till the end.”

Another few errant turns, and we finally found a big white sign with “Earl’s” written in red. Right behind it was a wood shack, with small windows and a porch out front.

I stared at the house and suddenly, desperately, hoped no one was home. Only then did I imagine how our presence might make the family feel. Here we were, two hungover coeds with no connection to this community, arriving with Christmas in a bag — or at least our version of Christmas. Presumably, someone had signed up for this “service,” but we knew little about the people we were visiting. A wave of shame engulfed me. “I don’t want to meet them,” I said. My roommate looked at me, thought for a moment, and agreed.

With the car still running, I opened the door, ran as quickly as my legs would carry me, deposited the bags on the porch, and hightailed it back to the car. We sped off, driving in silence until we found a diner where we could talk about what had just happened.

Our conversation ranged from somber recognition to embarrassed laughter at our own ignorance. We were glad to bring food and toys to a family that might have gone without, but this kind of drive-by charity felt wrong somehow, for everyone.

Years later, I’ve thought about what I might say to my younger self about that long-ago day. I would commend the instinct to make a contribution, but well-meaning acts of kindness are not enough. I would push my younger self to move from the blanket statement “I want to help disadvantaged people” to visualizing herself in the shoes of those she wanted to serve.

This is where moral imagination begins. But it doesn’t stop there.

Moral imagination means to view other people’s problems as if they were your own, and to begin to discern how to tackle those problems. And then to act accordingly. It summons us to understand and transcend the realities of current circumstances and to envision a better future for ourselves and others.

Moral imagination starts with empathy, but it does not content itself simply to feel another’s pain. Empathy without action risks reinforcing the status quo. Moral imagination is muscular, built from the bottom up and grounded through immersion in the lives of others. It involves connecting on a human level, analyzing the systemic issues at play, and only then envisioning how to go beyond applying a Band-Aid to making a long-term difference.

Moral imagination is the basis of an ethical framework for a world that recognizes our common humanity and insists on opportunity, choice and dignity for all of us. Had I approached the food and toy drive with moral imagination, I might have started by learning about the community and the realities those who lived there faced.

If I couldn’t spend time with the families we wanted to serve, I could have asked for information beyond the children’s genders and ages, which was the only data provided. I might have tried to connect with the family beforehand, or I could have asked to meet just the parents, so as not to risk spoiling the children’s dreams of a magical Santa-delivered Christmas.

Listening to voices unheard is fundamental to the moral imagination. So is gathering knowledge about those we intend to serve. If my roommate and I were unwilling to gain such knowledge, I could have found an organization with a commitment to the community and supported it so that it could do a better job than we could do ourselves.

The world has changed dramatically in the 30 years since that winter day in the Blue Ridge Mountains. For the privileged, today everything seems possible: Sending spaceships and inhabiting Mars, enhancing human capabilities by merging with robots, living forever. But this world of infinite possibility and space travel can seem impossibly distant to those who feel irrelevant, vulnerable or just plain poor. And if the demise of easily automated, repetitive work brings dreams of creative endeavors for the highly educated, the end of stable employment may feel precarious for those without university degrees.

Whether you are working in high tech or in low-income communities, moral imagination is what’s needed to ensure that our future solutions and institutions are inclusive and sustainable. That takes a particular kind of capability, one driven by empathy, immersion, connection and the willingness to challenge the status quo.

One of the great privileges of my life is to work with remarkable individuals whose leadership is grounded in moral imagination. The result is creative solutions that acknowledge the vulnerable and respect our natural resources.

In 2009, Carlos Ignacio Velasco, a young Colombian working as a representative of his country’s coffee industry in Tokyo, met Mayumi Ogata. She had just completed a four-year pursuit to identify the world’s finest varieties of cacao. After working in a premium chocolate company, Mayumi had wearied of the toll the industry took on farmers and the earth. More than 90 percent of the world’s chocolate is produced by about five million smallholder families, 90 percent of whom earn less than two dollars per day. And 70 percent of cacao is cultivated in West Africa, often through unsustainable farming methods.

Faced with these alarming statistics, Mayumi sought areas where high-quality varieties of the cacao fruit could be cultivated more profitably for the farmers — without harming the planet.

Of the places she’d visited, Colombia captured Mayumi’s heart. There, she found diverse, delicate varieties of cacao in a number of regions. But these same regions had suffered a half century of civil war and bore wounds from the violence of drug lords, FARC guerrillas and paramilitaries. They also are geographically isolated from the main cities, and people’s education and skills levels are quite low. Despite the risks, Mayumi assessed that prospects for cacao production were phenomenal.

Carlos had already been thinking about what more he could do to contribute to his country when he met Mayumi in Tokyo. He felt the post-conflict areas of his country needed deliberate investment if peace were to flourish. What better way to contribute than to build a company that would produce some of the world’s finest cacao together with local communities? Here, Carlos believed, was a chance to demonstrate the power of business infused with moral imagination: To produce not just profits for the few, but prosperity and peace where communities had for too long felt abandoned.

Carlos and Mayumi cofounded Cacao de Colombia in 2009 and began to build trust and relationships with farmers in four post-conflict regions. This process would take years, but time plus conscious effort infused with moral imagination enables possibility.

Acumen , the nonprofit that I founded and lead, has invested in Cacao de Colombia. In 2017, two years into this investment, I had the privilege of visiting a farming community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, one of the highest coastal mountain ranges on earth. There lie the ancestral lands of the Arhuacos, an indigenous people known for their commitment to living in harmony with the universe.

In those mountains, Mayumi had come upon an exquisite rare white cacao. She and Carlos dreamed of partnering with the Arhuacos to produce a world-class chocolate and export a philosophy, not just a product, to the rest of the world. It was not a given that the Arhuacos would be interested. They’d kept their traditions intact despite colonizers, drug dealers and soldiers and considered the white cacao a sacred fruit. Carlos and Mayumi would have to earn their trust, designing a transformative partnership — and that took time.

It required understanding of local history, customs and values before proceeding with mutual respect. As Virgilio Barco, Acumen’s Latin America director, and I drove with Mayumi along Colombia’s coast to meet the Arhuacos, I asked Mayumi how the partnership had been built.

Mayumi spoke about the spirituality of the Arhuacos, who believe in the interconnection of all living things. “I feel a resonance with this idea,” she said. “I was raised with Shintoism in Japan. We also see the connection between ourselves and the natural world. Between my own belief system and the Arhuacos’, I can count more than 800 divinities inspired by water, wind and earth. I respond to their spiritualism. I respond to their worldview. Our mutual understanding helped build trust. They could feel both my respect and my connection to them.”

We arrived at a village nestled by the pale blue sea where it greets a sudden rise of green, towering mountains. I thought to myself: “No wonder the Arhuacos believe this place to be the center of the universe.”

Mamo Camilo, a spiritual leader, and several of his associates welcomed us warmly and guided us to sit with them beneath a tree. The mamos (wise guides) exert powerful influence in their communities. Selected as boys, they train for a decade, learning the philosophy of the Arhuacos, along with traditional medicinal practices and the arts of listening and arbitrating differences among people.

The Arhuacos believe that nature and society are united by a single immutable law of the universe that has always existed and always will. “We see your culture as the world’s little brother,” Mamo Camilo said, with no trace of scolding. “Your people think the land is for their pleasure alone. Ours is a philosophy that must grow with maturity. We the Arhuacos are the elder brothers. We come with understanding that we must respect all living creatures of the earth. We seek harmony. Now the land has given us the rarest cacao, and it is to all of us to nurture and ensure its preservation.”

As Mamo Camilo expounded on the cosmology of the Arhuacos, he modeled something else: How to own your power. His confidence and worldview were essential components of his negotiations. Though economically “poorer,” his community was arguably richer in spirit and happiness. He also understood that the Arhuacos had something to give — not just materially but in terms of their philosophy.

As we walked toward the village center together, I noticed some of the young men holding cell phones. I wondered aloud whether entering a contract with the Cacao de Colombia might open a Pandora’s box of temptations. “We understand that we cannot live in the past,” Mamo Camilo said. “To survive, we must engage with the larger world. Today, our people need phones if they are going to interact with others beyond the Arhuacos. We need a few other essential things, like batteries and solar lights. And we need to continually remind ourselves of our responsibility for the earth.”

Then, he said, they would not have made a deal with anyone but Cacao de Colombia because of their earned mutual respect. But he added a caveat: “We will partner only so long as our project does not disturb our balance with nature. If we lose the balance, we will end the partnership. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I said. This was a negotiation based not on extraction or profit alone.

The agreement between the Arhuacos and the company was a moral commitment to remaining accountable to each other, to showing up, to listening. Spending immersive time together enabled each side to understand what the other needed for the relationship to work. For the Arhuacos, it was a means to sustaining their community, enabling it to continue transmitting its ancestral wisdom to benefit humanity. For Cacao de Colombia, it was the opportunity to build a successful business that valued human and natural resources, not only financial rewards.

In 2018, the International Chocolate Awards gave Arhuaco chocolates gold and silver medals in the Single Bean and Micro-Batch categories. This achievement was possible because of a Shinto-observing Japanese cacao whisperer; a Catholic-raised, Shinto-aspiring Colombian entrepreneur; and an indigenous community adhering to a philosophy based on oneness with the cosmos.

Each had the moral imagination to extend a hand to those who were different, seeking what united them and bonding in purpose. Moral imagination offers a powerful lens through which to see the world’s potential, recognize its disparities, and work to address them. Use it widely and practice it wisely.

Excerpted with permission from the new book Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World by Jacqueline Novogratz. Published by Henry Holt and Company. Copyright © 2020 by Acumen Fund. All rights reserved.

Watch Jacqueline Novogratz ‘s TED Talk now:

About the author

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen, a nonprofit impact investment fund. The author of The Blue Sweater, a New York Times bestseller, she has been named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, one of the 25 Smartest People of the Decade by the Daily Beast, and one of the world’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds by Forbes, which also honored her with the Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In addition to Acumen, she sits on a number of philanthropic boards.

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Moral Imagination

• David Bromwich
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• Language: English
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Copyright year: 2014
• Edition: Course Book
• Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;
• Main content: 376
• Keywords: Slavery ; Politics ; Americans ; Morality ; Patriotism ; Conscience ; Criticism ; Ideology ; Religion ; Cultural identity ; Writing ; Euphemism ; Hatred ; Imperialism ; Liberalism ; Intellectual ; Terrorism ; Torture ; Self-sufficiency ; Pity ; Thought ; Individualism ; Political philosophy ; Reflections on the Revolution in France ; Prejudice ; Assassination ; Nonviolent resistance ; Princeton University Press ; Loyalty ; Oppression ; Protestantism ; Communism ; Resentment ; Philosopher ; Self-image ; Suggestion ; Politician ; Suffering ; Narrative ; Toleration ; Civilization ; Publicity ; Self-Reliance ; Soliloquy ; Sovereignty ; Nonviolence ; Deed ; Secularization ; Cruelty ; Poetry ; Radicalism (historical) ; Pamphlet ; Polemic ; Sympathy ; Moral Man and Immoral Society ; George Kateb ; Separatism ; Christianity ; Fatalism ; National security ; Allegory ; Suicide attack ; The Other Hand ; Insurgency ; Popular sovereignty ; Anonymity ; Modernity ; War of aggression ; Chivalry ; Isolationism
• Published: March 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781400850013

The Moral Imagination of “Leave It to Beaver”

“Leave It to Beaver” was very much a medieval morality play, in which the character of the Beaver repeatedly succumbed to temptation, suffered the consequences, and was guided back on the path of virtue.

Yet it is surprisingly little known. To many, Leave It to Beaver is merely a phrase conjuring up a host of media-propagated clichés about society in the 1950s—bland, “white-bread,” conformist, and so on. The show is often misrepresented as a “sanitized,” “unrealistic,” or “cookie cutter” portrayal of a “perfect nuclear family”—phrases which reveal scorn for the very concepts of family and domesticity.

By contrast, Jerry Mathers, who played the title character and was a college philosophy major, has likened the series to a “medieval morality play” in which Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver repeatedly succumbed to temptation, suffered the consequences, and was guided back on the path of virtue. As we celebrate Leave It to Beaver ‘s sixtieth anniversary, Mr. Mathers’ idea offers the perfect template for viewing this popular classic.

A Television Morality Play

Leave It to Beaver was an artistic expression of a particular time in history. After the tumult of World War II, Americans longed for tranquility and order. Media and popular culture during the Cold War reinforced the domestic ideal, particularly in light of Communism’s disdain for the “bourgeois family.” While divorce and broken homes were becoming more common—in 1949 one writer could already claim that “family life is becoming a thing to be remembered rather than to be lived”—TV domestic sitcoms attempted to shore up the old values, stressing the importance of family in forming character and virtue. To criticize Beaver for being “idealized” misses the point, for its purpose was not documentary but didactic.

Beaver had many trappings of a morality play. It was set in the fictional town of Mayfield—that is, a “field” in which the young (those in the springtime of life) are formed morally. The name of Beaver’s elementary school teacher—Miss “Landers”—suggested a person who steers children to land amid the stormy seas of childhood. The Cleaver home was portrayed as a sanctuary, a garden of moral values in which love, mutual respect, and dignity reigned supreme.

But the evil lurking outside the sanctuary was given its due. Beaver’s friends were a Dickensian bunch of delinquents, constantly luring him into trouble. Most memorable was Larry Mondello, whose function as tempter was emphasized by his ever-present apple; later in the series, this tempter role was filled by the aptly named Gilbert Bates (“baits”). Two of the most famous episodes of the series involved Beaver, at the instigation of his friends, attempting to smoke his father’s meerschaum pipe and climbing into a giant “soup bowl” on a roadside billboard. The scripts excelled at pinpointing the decisive moment of moral choice and the chain of causation leading to evil.

The ultimate foil to the Cleavers was Eddie Haskell, the best friend of Beaver’s older brother Wally. His name suggested an “eddy”: a current at variance with the main current in a stream; and indeed, Eddie represented the antithesis of the Cleaver values. A smarmy sycophant to the adults and rascally schemer to his peers, Eddie was a menace to the social universe of Mayfield. His schemes were invariably shown to be morally bankrupt, and the episodes ended in the reinforcement of the correct moral norms.

Those who call Beaver “sanitized” overlook that many of the children on the show came from broken or dysfunctional homes. Larry Mondello’s father was perpetually away on business trips; his mother was a nervous wreck, struggling to raise single-handedly her wayward son. Mrs. Mondello’s advanced age carried the suggestion that Larry was a “surprise” child and unwanted. Others of Beaver’s friends talked of their fathers’ “hittin’ moods.” Eddie Haskell, too, behaved the way he did in part because of domestic discord. Divorce and alcoholism were addressed in various episodes.

The writers of Leave It to Beaver seemed to be telling us that everything outside the sanctuary of the Cleaver home is illusory and unreliable, and that family is a refuge from the corruption of the world.

Ward and June Cleaver provided the moral armor to fight these evils. Here again, the names had symbolic resonance. A “cleaver” is an instrument which cuts and separates, just as Ward Cleaver helped his children discern good from evil (one is reminded of the biblical phrase likening the word of God to a “two-edged sword”). The archaic verb “to ward” means “to protect or guard,” and the Cleaver patriarch also had the function of “warding off” bad influences. June Cleaver’s name suggested Juno, the Roman goddess of fertility and the hearth. June was indeed the heart of the Cleaver home, its source of grace and stability.

As a father, Ward exercised justice tempered with understanding, frequently recalling what it was like to be a child. He was always ready to sit down with his sons and discuss their dilemmas—often in his book-encrusted den, the inner sanctum of the Cleaver home. A den scene in the episode “Beaver’s Library Book”—in which Beaver loses a book checked out on Ward’s library card—even evokes a sacramental confession, with Beaver as the penitent sinner and Ward the benevolent priest. (Jerry Mathers, a Catholic, would presumably have been familiar with the dynamics of the confessional.) In this way,  Leave It to Beaver suggested that parental authority images divine authority.

Yet far from pushing a rigidly authoritarian viewpoint, Beaver put adult foibles on display. In this respect, the show could be compared to the moralistic paintings of Pieter Bruegel or Jan Steen in which children and adults are shown participating in the same vices. Ward’s co-worker and best friend Fred Rutherford was a parody of a pretentious, jargon-spouting corporate drone; his underachieving son “Lumpy” took after him. Many adults on Beaver were shown to be corrupt, deceitful, or susceptible to peer pressure. But above all, the show emphasized that both children and adults face the same moral choices and have something to teach each other.

Ward and June, for example, frequently made mistakes and admitted them. Beaver reflects a new era in which parents were increasingly concerned about parenting techniques and instilling the right values in their children. Caught between the traditional way they were raised and the new “pop psychology” of the Dr. Spock era, Ward and June strove for the right balance. Ward often mentioned that his own father disciplined him with corporal punishment, a method which he vowed not to use with his own children. The clash between nature and an over-complicated modern society was treated in a number of episodes, with the farming out of childhood to technical “experts” coming in for particular scorn. Far from blindly reflecting the social mores of the day, Beaver critiqued and satirized them.

The Cleaver family was founded in the loving marriage of Ward and June, a marriage characterized by companionship and mutual respect. Ward frequently assisted his wife in household chores and always listened to what she had to say. Beaver also stressed the complementarity of the sexes, their differing sensibilities. While Ward was authoritative, June was nurturing and often swayed her husband in the direction of a more merciful stance toward their children. In one episode, Ward used the novel Ivanhoe to teach Beaver the ideal of chivalry, and throughout the series we saw Beaver grow into a more mature role vis à vis the opposite sex. The idea of complementarity was reflected visually in the famous paintings of a little boy and girl— Blue Boy and Pinkie— which adorned the Cleavers’ living room.

If Ward and June represented authority, then Wally and Beaver represented solidarity and community. Wally was the mediator between Beaver and the adult world, his caustic quips and advice helping his brother navigate his environment. Beaver was the perpetual innocent, exuding wonder as the complexities of life were explained to him.

Humor and Artistry

Leave It to Beaver was just as strong on the “imaginative” side as on the “moral.” Writers Joe Connolly and Bob Mosher perfected a unique style of droll humor which poked fun at human nature, much of it mined from their experience with their own children. The whimsical observations about life “from the mouths of babes” sometimes turned into sharp satire:

“Hey Wally, what’s this? I found it in the bushes.”

“It’s whiskey.”

“Smells awful.”

“All whiskey smells awful.”

“Then why do people drink it?”

“Well, it’s like when grownups have a party. They drink it to have a good time.”

“Gee, if it’s a party, don’t they have a good time anyway?”

“Well, grownups have a harder time having a good time than kids do.”

The camera work highlighted the interaction between the adults and the youngsters, with the adults often shot from the child’s perspective. In fact, Beaver —whose initial working title was It’s a Small World —was one of the first family shows to be written from the point of view of the children instead of the parents. It dealt compassionately with experiences which while trivial to an adult are veritable battlefields for a child. This too reflects a new postwar emphasis on the well-being of children. But the focus was less on making the new generation better-off materially than on making them better morally. Art as moral instruction, a longstanding American tradition, was exploited brilliantly by Leave it to Beaver , appealing on a dual level to children and adults.

Routinely described as “simple,” the plots were in fact highly inventive, finding moral ambiguities in the theater of everyday life. The best of them were like gracefully choreographed comic ballets. Frequently, Beaver or Wally traveled a journey from innocence to wisdom by way of a disillusioning experience—like finding out that their favorite, big-talking uncle was a phony or being disappointed in a teenaged love affair. As the boys matured, the plots matured along with them, finding scope for romantic and financial dilemmas.

The series was filmed in movie style, using actual exterior locations and well-made interior sets—most notably, the cozy Cleaver home. Crisp black-and-white cinematography created the feeling of Mayfield as pastoral paradise, a Garden of Eden in perpetual May. Beaver ‘s realism was in no small part a result of the uncommon chemistry among the four principal actors—Jerry Mathers as Beaver, Tony Dow as Wally, Barbara Billingsley as June, and Hugh Beaumont (incidentally, a Methodist lay preacher) as Ward—and the tenderness with which their interactions were filmed.

The emphasis on decorum and good manners in the Cleaver family conveyed a vision of the good, true, and beautiful as they are first instilled in the home. This brings us to that other oft-repeated criticism of the show: the supposed unreality of Ward and June’s sitting around their home in formal attire (Ward in suit and tie, June in high heels and pearls). To this, we can only pose the philosopher Jacques Barzun’s definition of decorum—a “facade which presents things at their best”—and Russell Kirk’s statement that the moral imagination is meant to “elevate” us to a higher plane of living.

A Living Legacy

Connolly and Mosher created a unique work of art in Leave It to Beaver : a coming-of-age saga, told in real time over six years. Although enjoyed today as a nostalgic reminder of a supposedly “simpler” time, the show was very likely deliberately tapping into a tradition of Americana and depictions of a child’s world, from the stories of Mark Twain to the paintings of Winslow Homer. What one commentator has written about the art of Homer seems particularly applicable to Beaver :

The horrific experience of the Civil War inspired a generation of Americans to seek solace and escape in fantasies of an ever-happy childhood. More deeply than any other artist, Winslow Homer understood this need for sweet nostalgia in postwar society. His paintings… conjure an almost mythical American childhood: sailing boats in a stiff breeze, reading stories in the cool grass, and playing games outside a one-room schoolhouse. Homer’s world seems forever summer.

On a personal note, Leave It to Beaver is an essential part of my life, a touchstone to which I return regularly in re-runs and on the gorgeously restored DVDs. I would be poorer without it. That the show’s stars—Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, Ken Osmond and the others—have remained in the public eye and upheld the show’s positive spirit has surrounded Beaver with a radiant aura that remains undimmed. In many ways, the saga of the Cleavers continues.

For sixty years,  Leave It to Beaver has taught us to look at life with irony and whimsy. This is the sublime gift of comedy: to instill in us the capacity to take ourselves lightly. But the type of comedy is crucial. Instead of low slapstick, Beaver offered us a high comedy of manners, comedy in the classical sense of a story that ends in the restoration of order and happiness. One might also add, in the case Leave It to Beaver , the acquisition of wisdom.

Author’s note: I am indebted to Michael Leggs for his discussion of name symbolism in his online essay All the Symbolism You Never Knew Existed in “Leave It to Beaver.”

The Imaginative Conservative  applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider  donating now .

The featured image is courtesy of IMDb .

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23 comments.

I enjoyed Leave It To Beaver when it was new, and I enjoy watching reruns now. I completely avoid contemporary sitcoms with their snide dialogue with vile kids and adults. Fortunately there are networks that show the old shows.

I’m with you on that, I watch the old shows exclusively. Thanks goodness that we have the reruns.

I loved Leave it to Beaver in the ’60’s and still do. Each time I have seen Beaver or June held up as an impossible and even comical standard, I have cringed. The intact family striving to do right is not outdated.

I still enjoy watching. I am now in my 60s

Amen Annie. Our kids these days starve of those days

One of my all time favorite Sitcoms along with The Dick Van Dyke Show & The Honeymooners. I’m in my sixties now and my kids have watched the show and they enjoyed it also.

The writing of this and those other 50s, 60s shows was excellent. Witty and meaningful without having to be crude or caustic.

One of my favorite lines…..

June – But Beave don’t you want grandma to see how tall you’ve gotten?

Beave – Gee ma can’t she just look at the marks on the wall?

I have a conversation on June and Wards wardrobe and relationship with a coworker. In it I pointed out that as an engineer Ward was, in the 1950’s a member of the upper middle class. Also considering the age of Wally and the year of the show he would have been conceived in 1945. Wikipedia (and I suppose somewhere in the show itself) states that Ward and June met in prep (high) school and that Ward was an engineer in the Seebees in WWII. June was raised by an aunt and attended boarding school. These were just the kind of people who would dress up every day at that time. Ward was not a middle or lower class guy who went to college on the G.I, bill and married his high school sweetheart. He was the guy who went to prep school, along with the prettiest girl there and both went off to college, probably doing NROTC as they watch Europe burning. June was much more likely to have been a Red Cross volunteer than a Rosie the Riveter. Did they marry before he left or when he returned? At any rate the character of June would have had to tend the home fires while her love was island hopping in the Pacific. Such people have moral character that most (not all we still have such men and women in uniform) today do not need to call upon. Great show.

Excellent commentary, thank you.

Ward was a farm boy. His stories all center around his agricultural background and his Farmer Dad. The show pays homage to the agricultural past as the bedrock of modern progress.

Absolutely terrific article, and great rebuttal to the moral revisionists.

Don’t forget the most obvious double meaning of the last name “Cleaver”. In the Christian tradition, Ward and June “cleave” to each other and become one. They truly are ‘cleavers’! lol

Good article and a good perspective on a time long ago and far away. I stopped watching sitcoms many years ago because, 1. They were about nothing. 2. Everyone communicates in one-liners that even Henny Youngman would groan at. 3. There was very little if anything funny about them. 4. The laugh track was as annoying as the program itself. This includes what has happened to SNL another program I stopped watching in the late 1990s. TV reminds me of some of the scenes in the classic Fahrenheit 451 movie directed by Francois Truffaut where the characters are very stiff and 1 dimensional. They are there to deliver lines like a boring Ben Stein, without the tongue and cheek humor. Lol! I have not seen Leave it to Beaver in many years, so maybe it is time for a revisit.

Love the show. Always thought it was underrated as a sarcastic comedy show.

Exceptionally well written article. Thank you.

Oddly, in the earliest episodes Ward wore much more casual attire, yet was apt to lose his temper and yell at the boys. In latter seasons his wardrobe would be more formal, but his parenting techniques would be more laidback and casual.

Thank you for such a nice and informative article! I was just a baby/young child when it was originally on TV and not capable of appreciating the show but am greatly enjoying the re runs being shown on TV these days. I understand the moral and family aspects but really did not know about all the religious symbolism written in the show. I really love Ward as the father especially since I grew up without one and June as the mother that I wish mine was..

The show brings me back to my childhood, truly a “simpler time” in our Amerian heritage. The situations are those that, as children, we all experienced. As stated by others here, it is a better place in our society, where today the smart-mouthed characters make our current times a more stressful place to reside. The re-runs are like the Twilight Zone episode where the man daydreams about earlier times as he rides the train and then is projected back to those times. Bravo, for television capturing those times for all time.

A fine exposition of the morality play that was Leave it to Beaver. Much food for thought

Interesting and colorful article!!!

Beautifully expressed and written.

REALLY enjoyed the thoughtful insights in the article. Especially the insights into the character interactions. One differing point – Jerry Mathers has stated that his nickname came about as one writer, Joe Connelly, had a WW II shipmate who was known as “Beaver.” Their last name, Cleaver, was chosen simply because it rhymed. Thank you for the article. – a proverbial ‘two thumbs up’

eddie haskell was the show’s id. ward cleaver was the show’s super ego. while the beave was the series’s ego.

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Text to Text: On Empathy and ‘Moral Imagination’

By Kathryn Curto and Michael Gonchar

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Can empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, help make us better people? Can it help make the world a better place?

If we could gain a deeper sense of what it’s like to be somebody different from us — from a different part of the world, from the other side of the tracks, with a different skin color, religion or gender — would we become more generous, understanding or compassionate people? Can empathy help bridge the divides that fracture us as a nation and world?

In this Text to Text , Jennifer Finney Boylan’s personal essay “Bring Moral Imagination Back in Style” and Nicholas Kristof’s Op-Ed “How Do We Increase Empathy?” take on those questions. Both pieces acknowledge that while learning to feel empathy may be challenging, it is a skill worth nurturing.

To become stronger, better, faster and more competitive athletes, we need to work out and practice. We need to exercise. We need to stretch, sweat and push our way out of our comfort zones to achieve a higher level of skill and performance.

But what about the muscles needed to be an empathetically fit human being? How do we exercise those? And how do we create opportunities for greater compassion and empathy in our world?

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Videos Concepts Unwrapped View All 36 short illustrated videos explain behavioral ethics concepts and basic ethics principles. Concepts Unwrapped: Sports Edition View All 10 short videos introduce athletes to behavioral ethics concepts. Ethics Defined (Glossary) View All 58 animated videos - 1 to 2 minutes each - define key ethics terms and concepts. Ethics in Focus View All One-of-a-kind videos highlight the ethical aspects of current and historical subjects. Giving Voice To Values View All Eight short videos present the 7 principles of values-driven leadership from Gentile's Giving Voice to Values. In It To Win View All A documentary and six short videos reveal the behavioral ethics biases in super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's story. Scandals Illustrated View All 30 videos - one minute each - introduce newsworthy scandals with ethical insights and case studies. Video Series

Concepts Unwrapped UT Star Icon

Moral Imagination

Moral imagination is our ability to think outside the box and envision ways to be both ethical and successful.

Discussion Questions

1. Can you think of a time when you or someone whom you know used moral imagination?  If so, what motivated you (or this individual) to use moral imagination?

2. What kind of organizational context would encourage the use of moral imagination?

3. What can leaders do to encourage the people who work for them to use moral imagination?

4. The video suggests that it often takes courage to exercise moral imagination.  What kind of things would give people the courage to use moral imagination?

5. The video suggests that moral imagination may require one to buck the status quo.  What can one do to learn how to move beyond the status quo and do things differently?

6. What does moral imagination have in common with other types of creativity and innovation?

Case Studies

In-FUR-mercials: Advertising & Adoption

When the Lied Animal Shelter faces a spike in animal intake, an advertising agency uses its moral imagination to increase pet adoptions.

Teaching Notes

This video introduces the behavioral ethics concept known as moral imagination. Moral imagination is our ability to think outside the box and envision ways to be both ethical and successful. Moral imagination is illustrated in two forms in the video: (1) find a way to be both ethical and successful (for example, the advertising agency CEO who resigned a big client rather than do something unethical that the client was insisting that he do and found a way to cut costs, pitch new business, and keep everyone employed); and (2) find a way to make money and serve society (for example, TOMS Shoes’ one-for-one donation; for each pair of TOMS shoes sold, the company donates a pair to someone in need). Making a distinction between these two forms of moral imagination can be helpful; the former involves integrity, while the latter involves corporate social responsibility.

Advertising practitioners who use moral imagination tend to work in advertising agencies that encourage moral sensitivity. In these agencies, organizational values related to ethics are clearly articulated and broadly embraced. Advertising practitioners in these agencies often talk about ethical issues with their co-workers and their clients, and they view providing ethics counsel to their clients as part of their roles as trusted business advisors.

This video is a part of the three-video Moral Trilogy package. The three videos in the Moral Trilogy [ Moral Myopia , Moral Muteness , and Moral Imagination (this video)] are intended to be used together. Moral myopia and moral muteness often reinforce each other, while breaking free of moral myopia and moral muteness can enable one to develop moral imagination.

To learn more about other ways moral imagination can be enacted or encouraged, watch Ethical Leadership, Part 2: Best Practices and Being Your Best Self, Part 3: Moral Intent .

The case study on this page, “ In-FUR-mercials: Advertising & Adoption ,” shows how an advertising agency used its moral imagination to increase pet adoptions at the Lied Animal Shelter when the shelter faced a spike in animal intake. For a case study that illustrates how companies can benefit from moral imagination, read “ The Costco Model .”

Terms defined in our ethics glossary that are related to the video and case studies include: corporate social responsibility , integrity , moral imagination , moral muteness , and moral myopia .

The three behavioral ethics concepts in the Moral Trilogy and many of the rationalizations that underpin them are described and documented in an article published in the Journal of Advertising by Minette Drumwright and Patrick Murphy (see Additional Resources).

Behavioral ethics draws upon behavioral psychology, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and related disciplines to determine how and why people make the ethical and unethical decisions that they do. Much behavioral ethics research addresses the question of why good people do bad things. Many behavioral ethics concepts are explored in detail in Concepts Unwrapped , as well as in the video case study  In It to Win: The Jack Abramoff Story . Anyone who watches all (or even a good part) of these videos will have a solid introduction to behavioral ethics.

Additional Resources

The latest resource from Ethics Unwrapped is a book, Behavioral Ethics in Practice: Why We Sometimes Make the Wrong Decisions , written by Cara Biasucci and Robert Prentice. This accessible book is amply footnoted with behavioral ethics studies and associated research. It also includes suggestions at the end of each chapter for related Ethics Unwrapped videos and case studies. Some instructors use this resource to educate themselves, while others use it in lieu of (or in addition to) a textbook.

Cara Biasucci also recently wrote a chapter on integrating Ethics Unwrapped in higher education, which can be found in the latest edition of  Teaching Ethics: Instructional Models, Methods and Modalities for University Studies . The chapter includes examples of how Ethics Unwrapped is used at various universities.

The most recent article written by Cara Biasucci and Robert Prentice describes the basics of behavioral ethics and introduces Ethics Unwrapped videos and supporting materials along with teaching examples. It also includes data on the efficacy of Ethics Unwrapped for improving ethics pedagogy across disciplines. Published in  Journal of Business Law and Ethics Pedagogy  (Vol. 1, August 2018), it can be downloaded here: “ Teaching Behavioral Ethics (Using “Ethics Unwrapped” Videos and Educational Materials) .”

An article written by Ethics Unwrapped authors Minette Drumwright, Robert Prentice, and Cara Biasucci introduce key concepts in behavioral ethics and approaches to effective ethics instruction—including sample classroom assignments. Published in the  Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education,  it can be downloaded here: “ Behavioral Ethics and Teaching Ethical Decision Making .”

A detailed article written by Robert Prentice, with extensive resources for teaching behavioral ethics, was published in  Journal of Legal Studies Education and can be downloaded here: “ Teaching Behavioral Ethics .”

Another article by Robert Prentice, discussing how behavioral ethics can improve the ethicality of human decision-making, was published in the  Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy . It can be downloaded here: “ Behavioral Ethics: Can It Help Lawyers (And Others) Be their Best Selves? ”

A dated (but still serviceable) introductory article about teaching behavioral ethics can be accessed through Google Scholar by searching: Prentice, Robert A. 2004. “ Teaching Ethics, Heuristics, and Biases .”   Journal of Business Ethics Education  1 (1): 57-74.

Academic Articles:

Bird, Frederick B., and James A. Waters. 1989. “The Moral Muteness Of Managers.” California Management Review 32 (1): 73-88.

Drumwright, Minette E., and Patrick E. Murphy. 2004. “How Advertising Practitioners View Ethics: Moral Muteness, Moral Myopia, and Moral Imagination.” Journal of Advertising 33 (2): 7-24.

Gentile, Mary C. 2010. “Keeping Your Colleagues Honest: How to Challenge Unethical Behavior at Work—And Prevail.” Harvard Business Review 88 (3): 114-117.

Gentile, Mary C. 2010. Giving Voice to Values : How to Speak Your Mind When You Know What’s Right . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Prentice, Robert. 2004. “Teaching Ethics, Heuristics And Biases.” Journal Of Business Ethics Education 1 (1): 57-74.

Werhane, Patricia H. 1999. Moral Imagination And Management Decision-Making . New York: Oxford University Press.

See the Giving Voice To Values (GVV) Curriculum for cases that provide evidence of Moral Myopia and Moral Muteness.  All GVV curriculum materials are free to instructors and students here:

Especially see the GVV cases written by Minette E. Drumwright and her students, “Part-Time Job With A Full-Time Challenge,” “Market Research Deception,” “Student Privileges With Strings Attached,” and “Online Identities (A) & (B).”

News Stories On Scandals:

Barrett, Paul M. 2014. “ The Scandal Bowl: Tar Heels Football, Academic Fraud, and Implicit Racism .” Businessweek , January 2.

Belson, Ken. 2012. “ Sandusky’s Trial Begins With Graphic Testimony .” New York Times , June 11.

Boren, Cindy. 2013. “ A Brief History of Lance Armstrong Denying Doping Allegations .” Washington Post , January 14.

Associated Press. 2013. “Lance Armstrong Doping Denials Over the Years.” Huffington Post , January 16.

Transcript of Narration

Written and Narrated by

Minette Drumwright , Ph.D., M.B.A. Department of Advertising and Public Relations Moody College of Communication The University of Texas at Austin

“It can be difficult to have integrity in the workplace at times, especially when it seems that many people are succeeding through unethical behavior. It can be tempting to throw up your hands and say, “I have got to be unethical if I want to succeed!” or “If I am ethical, I will go broke!” This type of thinking creates a false dichotomy between being ethical and failing OR being unethical and succeeding.

Some people are able to break out of this type of thinking, even in very tough circumstances. They have what scholars such as Mark Johnson and Patricia Werhane have referred to as “moral imagination.” Moral imagination is the ability to think outside the box and envision ways to be both ethical and successful — alternatives that many people cannot even imagine.

I encountered a vivid example of moral imagination in my research with Patrick Murphy that was published in Journal of Advertising. The CEO of a major advertising agency described a time in which his largest client, who accounted for more than one third of his agency’s revenues, asked him to do something he considered unethical. He objected, but the client dug in his heels and insisted that the advertising agency carry out the unethical behavior.

The CEO went back to the office and discussed the client’s request at length with his team. After a good deal of deliberation, they came to the conclusion that they could not comply with the request. At the meeting the next day, the CEO used his most persuasive arguments in objecting to the behavior, but the client stood firm. The CEO resigned the account just before the client fired him. Suddenly, one-third of the agency’s revenues disappeared. Typically, in a situation like this in advertising, most if not all of the people working on the account get pink slips; they are fired to reduce the agency’s fixed costs dramatically and immediately. The CEO said that he did not believe that this was the right thing to do. He gathered his team together, and they brainstormed ways to cut costs and pitch new business. And then they did those things. In the end, no one was fired, and the agency made it through the crisis successfully with its credibility and its reputation intact. It had become a legend that embodied and communicated the values of the organization.

So what can we do to develop moral imagination?

First, reject the false dichotomy that we have to either be ethical and go broke or be unethical and successful. Second, accept the fact that ethical problem solving is a part of our role as professionals and apply the same problem solving skills and approaches to ethical issues as we do to other issues. Third, talk with other people who share our perspective about the importance of finding ethical approaches and brainstorm alternatives. And finally, have courage! We can have the best values in the world, but they do not do anyone any good if we do not have the courage to put them into action.”

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Moral imagination: implications of cognitive science for ethics

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Moral imagination as an instrument for ethics education for biomedical researchers

• Open access
• Published: 23 May 2023
• Volume 8 , pages 275–289, ( 2023 )

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• Elianne M. Gerrits   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5805-9505 1 ,
• Lars S. Assen 2 ,
• Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens 3 , 4 ,
• Annelien L. Bredenoord 3 &
• Marc H. W. van Mil 1 , 5  

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Moral sensitivity and moral reasoning are essential competencies biomedical researchers have to develop to make ethical decisions in their daily practices. Previous research has shown that these competencies can be developed through ethics education. However, it is unclear which underlying mechanisms best support the development of these competencies. In this article we argue that the development of moral sensitivity and moral reasoning can be fostered through teaching strategies that tap into students’ moral imagination. We describe how moral imagination can stimulate the development of these competencies through three different merits of moral imagination. Moral imagination can help students to 1) transfer and apply abstract moral concepts to concrete situations and contexts, 2) explore the perspective of others, 3) explore and foresee the moral consequences of different decisions and actions. We explain these three merits of moral imagination in the context of biomedical research and present a theoretical model for how these merits can be used to stimulate the development of moral sensitivity and moral reasoning. Furthermore, we describe multiple teaching strategies for biomedical curricula that tap into the three merits of moral imagination. These teaching strategies can inspire teachers to design ethics education that activates students’ moral imagination for the development of moral sensitivity and moral reasoning.

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Introduction

Ethics education for non-ethicists generally focuses on teaching students the competencies necessary for making ethical decisions. With this article we aim to develop more theoretical insight into the educational mechanism that can support the development of these competencies. To describe the competencies relevant in this context we use the four-component model of ethical decision making proposed by Rest ( 1986 ). The four components described in this model can be summarized as moral sensitivity, moral reasoning, moral intent, and moral behavior. The first two components of this model focus on the competencies necessary to recognize and reason about situations from a moral point of view, while the latter two focus on the development of virtues necessary to commit to moral action (Clarkeburn 2002a ; Rest 1986 ). In this article we focus on the competencies moral sensitivity and moral reasoning as goals for ethics education. Although, the virtues linked to moral intent and moral behavior, such as moral resilience, are also interesting goals for ethics education (for example Bauer and Hermann 2022 ), we consider moral sensitivity and moral reasoning the basic goals in the educational programs of non-ethicists, especially in undergraduate education (Gerrits et al. 2022 ). One reason for our choice not to focus on moral intent and moral behavior is, because of the disparity between choosing a course of action and behaving in a concordant manner, these are difficult to translate into concrete learning outcomes in an educational setting (Antes and DuBois 2014 ; Callahan and Bok 1980 ; Clarkeburn 2002a ; King and Mayhew 2002 ). Furthermore, understanding the difficulties of committing to moral action in face of disturbances is something that only can be practiced in real-life situations, making it difficult to realize these goals in the limited time that is often ascribed to ethics in the educational programs of non-ethicists, especially in undergraduate education (Clarkeburn 2002a ).

Moral sensitivity and moral reasoning

Moral sensitivity is in this article defined as the ability to recognize if a situation contains moral aspects and which moral concepts, such as principles, values, virtues, and theories, are relevant in a situation. Moral sensitivity is therefore a two-step process that starts with the recognition that specific actions in a situation can harm or benefit others’ wellbeing and as such need ethical consideration. This first step is crucial in the process of ethical decision making, as without recognizing the need for ethical consideration, an individual will not start the process of consciously making ethical decisions (Rest 1986 ; Reynolds and Miller 2015 ). The second step is the ability to give a context specific interpretation of the moral aspects in a situation (Callahan and Bok 1980 ; Clarkeburn 2002b ; Fowler et al. 2009 ).

Moral reasoning is in this article defined as the ability to explore which course of action is morally desirable in a situation. When a situation is recognized as morally relevant, people develop intuitions about what is morally justified. Moral reasoning is the process of inquiry to confirm or falsify these intuitions (Bebeau et al. 1999 ; Coeckelbergh 2007 ; Fowler et al. 2009 ). It involves weighing the consequences of specific actions and considering the perspectives of different stakeholders (Fowler et al. 2009 ).

Multiple studies have shown that ethics education can support the development of moral sensitivity and moral reasoning (Antes et al. 2009 ; Clarkeburn et al. 2002 ; Watts et al. 2017 ). However, it is unclear through which underlying mechanisms these educational efforts support the development of these competencies. Theoretical insights into the mechanisms that support the development of specific competencies can lead to design criteria that can inspire and support teachers when developing educational interventions (McKenney and Reeves 2018 ). In this article we argue that moral imagination is a mechanism that underlies many teaching strategies for effective ethics education.

• Moral imagination

While several authors, have given descriptions of what moral imagination entails, in this article we follow a rather broad definition. We refer to moral imagination as the use of products of one’s imagination, such as narratives, metaphors, or images, in the process of ethical reflection on a specific situation (Johnson 1993 ). This definition suggests that moral imagination is utilized when a person actively envisions what a situation entails from a moral point of view. Based on the different descriptions of moral imagination in literature, we specify three different merits, or qualities, of moral imagination that can be summarized as transferring moral concepts, perspective-taking, and comparing actions. These merits can be considered thought processes that build on moral imagination. Although the three merits of moral imagination we identify are not discipline-specific, in this contribution we focus on the field of biomedical research, providing some specific refinements relevant to this field. After describing the three merits of moral imagination in the context of biomedical research, we discuss how these merits could be translated into teaching strategies for ethics education for biomedical students.

Strengthening moral sensitivity and moral reasoning through three merits of moral imagination

Merit 1: transferring moral concepts.

The first merit invokes moral imagination to transfer abstract moral concepts, such as principles, values, rules, and theories, to new situations. Transfer in this case concerns the application of knowledge derived in one specific context meaningfully to another context (Gilbert et al. 2011 ). For biomedical researchers the moral concepts relevant to research practices can be found in frameworks such as the four principles of Beauchamp and Childress (Beauchamp and Childress 2001 ), general (professional) codes of ethics, and guiding principles developed by (inter)national research institutes and professional organizations. Some examples include the World Medical Association’s (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences’ (CIOMS) Guidelines for Biomedical Research, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Health. However, these general prescriptions will not always easily fit the everyday practices of biomedical researchers (cf. Assen et al. 2022 ; Coeckelbergh 2006 ; Schuurbiers et al. 2009 ). To act in accordance with these codes and guiding principles, researchers should be able to recognize whether and how guidelines and principles can be interpreted to guide their research practices (Coeckelbergh 2006 ; Johnson 1993 ; Werhane 1998 ). For instance, the principles of transparency and integrity are often named in literature (Diekmann 2013 ) and codes of conduct (ALLEA 2017 ) to provide ethical guidance but are often abstractly formulated. To recognize the relevance of these abstract principles in a specific context, the researcher first must become familiar with these principles. This familiarity includes knowledge of prototypical situations in which these principles are relevant and what possible issues, consequences, and solutions surround these principles. For example, in cases of research integrity, prototypical situations could involve gift authorship or salami publications. Related consequences could be that someone receives an unfair advantage compared to someone with fewer publications (Goddiksen and Gjerris 2022 ). Once a researcher is familiar with prototypical situations in which specific moral concepts are relevant, it will become easier to recognize them in new situations. Moral imagination is then used to draw similarities and differences between the new situation and the prototypical case in which certain moral concepts are known to be relevant. Thereafter, the moral concepts have to be transferred in an imaginative process to fit this new situation (Johnson 1985 ). Using moral imagination to understand which moral concepts are valuable in complex situations can stimulate researchers not to be passively guided by general prescriptions but develop an active understanding of how to apply moral principles, values, rules, and theories to new contexts and situations.

Merit 2: Perspective-taking

While the first merit of moral imagination mainly stimulates a personal interpretation of the moral concepts relevant in a situation, the second merit is the use of moral imagination to include the perspective of others and how they are affected by the situation. This form of imagination encompasses the ability to put oneself in a different situation from the perspective of another through perspective-taking (Johnson 1993 ; Nussbaum 2003 ). Perspective-taking is suggested to benefit ethical decision making for two reasons. First, when imaginatively experiencing the world of others, we learn to recognize the interests of others and develop a sense of care for their wellbeing (Nussbaum 2003 ). This cultivation of empathy can increase the importance we give to moral aspects, increasing the motivation to act in ways that benefit these other individuals (Nussbaum 1991 ). This benefit of perspective-taking is especially relevant in situations where there is a direct personal or professional relationship between the individual who performs the action and the individual who is affected by this action, such as healthcare professionals and patients (Scott 1997 ). The second benefit of experiencing a situation from the perspective of someone else is that it provides a better understanding of what moral principles others deem relevant in this situation and, in this way, broadens the individual’s interpretation of the situation (Johnson 1993 ; Kekes 1991 ). This can result in the recognition of additional moral aspects relevant to the situation that were not recognized through the personal interpretation of the situation. The first benefit, cultivation of empathy through perspective-taking, is for example relevant in considering the perspective of non-human animals used in biomedical experiments. However, three things should be noted in considering this first benefit of perspective-taking in a biomedical context. Firstly, biomedical researchers are often not in direct contact with those affected by their research, such as patients or research participants. Secondly, biomedical research often affects groups or even society as a whole and not a single individual. Finally, the effects of the actions performed by researchers today may lie in the very far future, as the development of biomedical innovations often takes many years or even decades. Despite this distance in both space and time, imagining the perspectives of those affected, even if they concern hypothetical perspectives, is still valuable. Through its second benefit, perspective-taking broadens the interpretation of the situation aiding moral sensitivity. Furthermore, perspective-taking aids the process of moral reasoning when using the perspectives of those involved to analyze how the situation impacts them and how this influences action options.

While perspective-taking offers benefits, limitations should be carefully considered. By letting students experience the perspective of others only in mind, perspective-taking is inherently speculative. As such, the imaginative perspectives that students come up with do not necessarily mimic the vision of someone who actually experienced the situation. Therefore, moral imagination exercises should not be seen as a replacement for real-life engagement with stakeholders. If students believe their experience of others’ worldviews is infallible, this may only reinforce existing biases and assumptions. Real-life engagement with stakeholders in biomedical education could involve patient engagement. Meeting patients who experienced illness or were part of a research trial can be a valuable experience for biomedical research students. Additionally, discussions with stakeholders, for example, pharmaceutical companies, members of society whose lives are directly influenced by biomedical innovations, or animal protesters who wish to minimize animal use in experiments, could help biomedical students see how others are impacted by their future professional careers. These discussions provide invaluable insights that help in combating biases and assumptions. Furthermore, they could lead to better interpretations of these perspectives in moral imagination exercises.

Merit 3: Comparing actions

While the second merit of moral imagination adds the perspectives of others to the interpretation of the situation, the third merit uses moral imagination to determine the best possible action based on this interpretation of a situation. This can be achieved by experimenting with different scenarios in one’s imagination and evaluating the potential impact from the perspectives of the different stakeholders involved (Alexander 1993 ; Johnson 1993 ). As such, several actions can be compared to select the most desirable one, while additional efforts can be made to anticipate potential residual negative consequences of this action. This aspect of moral imagination can, for example, aid in perceiving design problems and envisioning the possible outcomes of certain design choices (Coeckelbergh 2006 ). The interpretation of this merit of moral imagination is relevant in the context of biomedical research as it facilitates taking morality into account in making daily decisions as a researcher, for example, when choosing between disposable plastic items in the laboratory or implementing sustainable alternatives (Banks et al. 2020 ). While in this way researchers could shape their daily practices, eventual biomedical innovations are often not the direct result of one specific research effort. In general, new biomedical innovations are shaped by many years of research, followed by many stages of development involving different actors. In this situation it is generally not possible for one specific researcher to shape the outcomes of this process or come up with a completely different design. As such, innovations are shaped by ‘many hands’ (Jonas 1979 ; Waelbers 2009 ). However, even though many researchers make small contributions to these innovations, this does not refrain them from the shared responsibility for the socially desirable and ethical design and implementation of these innovations (Waelbers 2009 ). While behavior and actions of individual researchers in the laboratory might have a modest effect on biomedical innovations, a collective of researchers might have a more considerable effect. Such collective deliberation can benefit from active use of moral imagination when devising desirable actions that are relevant to anticipate ethical implications of innovations. Deliberation with and between researchers could inspire actions that inform policy decisions or create awareness of the ethical implications among society. An example of the latter could involve societal dialogues about biomedical innovations and their ethical challenges. These dialogues can result in new insights that can inform and potentially steer biomedical innovations (Reincke et al. 2020 ).

An educational perspective on moral imagination for biomedical researchers

Summarizing the insights from the previous section, we argue that educational efforts that use moral imagination should be directed at the following merits.

Moral imagination contributes to the ability to transfer moral concepts, such as principles, values, virtues, and theories, to fit specific situations and contexts.

Moral imagination contributes to the ability to view and understand the situation from different perspectives by shifting one’s perspective towards the perspective of another (on individual, group, or societal levels) both in the present and the future.

Moral imagination contributes to the ability to explore and foresee the moral consequences of different decision and action options.

Stimulating the three merits of moral imagination can aid in developing the competencies to recognize and reason about the ethical implications of biomedical practices. A sequential relation between moral sensitivity and moral reasoning has been described previously (Clarkeburn 2002b ; Rest 1986 ; Weaver et al. 2008 ). To reason about which actions can be considered moral in a situation, someone first needs to recognize that there are moral aspects in this situation worthy of consideration. The first and second merit of moral imagination aid this first step of moral sensitivity. The ability to look at a situation through different perspectives can stimulate recognition that specific actions can harm or benefits others’ wellbeing. By contributing to the ability to transfer moral concepts to a specific situation or context, moral imagination strengthens the ability to make a concrete and context specific interpretation of the moral aspects in a situation. The second and third merits of moral imagination aid moral reasoning. By exploring different action options in mind, while actively envisioning the outcomes of actions through different perspectives, moral imagination strengthens the ability to deliberate which actions have a desirable outcome. The described theoretical framework of moral imagination is summarized in Fig.  1 .

Overview of the relation between the merits of moral imagination and the competencies moral sensitivity and moral reasoning

In the next section, we describe several teaching strategies that tap into the three merits of moral imagination to develop moral sensitivity and moral reasoning competencies. The overview that we provide of teaching strategies that stimulate moral imagination is not exhaustive. However, the examples described here could guide teachers of biomedical research students to develop teaching strategies that facilitate moral imagination.

Teaching strategies that build on moral imagination in biomedical education

Strategies that tap into merit 1.

Teaching strategies that build on the first merit of moral imagination use moral imagination to help students recognize how moral concepts, such as principles, values, virtues, and theories, can be transferred to fit specific situations and contexts. To make ethical decisions based on moral principles, values, virtues, and theories, students should be able to apply these general moral concepts to specific situations (Weaver and Mitcham 2016 ). An example of a framework used in biomedical ethics is the framework of principles by Beauchamp and Childress (Beauchamp and Childress 2001 ). However, principlism as an approach to analyzing situations is criticized for being too limited in acknowledging the complexity of bioethics issues (Campbell 2003 ; Walker 2009 ). The use of only four principles is described as too narrow to provide a complete overview of the issues. Additionally, these principles might not be shared between all cultures (Bredenoord 2016 ; Walker 2009 ). While principlism and the set of four principles can be a limitation to recognize all relevant moral principles in a situation (Campbell 2003 ; Walker 2009 ), it is a credible starting point for educating biomedical researchers, who in their daily practices do not need to address situations with as much thoroughness as ethicists. As such, these principles could be used in a framework of so-called mid-level principles to recognize the ethical challenges and implications of biomedical research (Arras 1994 ). Frameworks of mid-level principles involve principles that are in the middle between (abstract) theories and their application, such as making moral judgments in practical settings. Ideally, the mid-level approach not only deducts important principles from ethical theories but also includes other principles derived from ethical codes, field-specific norms, and guidelines (Diekmann 2013 ).

In addition to being too limited in its number of principles, the framework of Beauchamp and Childress is being criticized for being too mechanical and deductive to encourage thorough development of the analytical and personal competencies needed for ethical reflection (Callahan 2003 ). Because of this deductive nature, the principlism approach might even hinder the use of imagination in ethical reflection. This could indeed be a pitfall when asking students to use these principles just for their basic meaning without any context-specific interpretation. However, when asking students to specify and balance these principles to fit new situations, these principles can enrich the interpretation of ethical issues (Sokol 2009 ). When stimulating students to use their imagination to transfer these principles to new situations, in addition to being aware and inclusive to the perspectives of others, the principles can be used as a vehicle and guidance for ethical reflection.

A first exercise to become familiar with moral principles could be to provide exercises or scenarios that show prototypical situations that involve moral principles and discuss the ethical implications that surround them. Moral imagination is then used to envision the prototypical situation and possible issues, consequences, and solutions. Subsequent exercises can focus on transferring principles to new situations. For students to notice the transferability of concepts to a new context, the context should have a level of similarity that fits in their zone of proximal development (Gilbert et al. 2011 ). By exemplifying how these new situations are analogous to the prototypical situations, students can practice the transfer of principles to fit situations with increasing complexity. Such an exercise can for example focus on how codes of conduct reflect the time, context, and challenges in which they were established. It might therefore be necessary to update them in accordance with new contexts and challenges. Practicing the transfer of these codes of conduct to new situations can help biomedical students to consider limitations of existing codes of conduct. Using these exercises to discuss necessary changes or updates in codes of conduct can help students realize that such codes are not morally absolute.

Strategies that tap into merit 2

Teaching strategies that tap into the second merit should invite students to use their moral imagination to look at situations from perspectives that differ from their own. It should be noted that a perspective differs from more superficial notions such as a position or orientation. Exploring a perspective asks for engagement with the circumstances of the other, rather than evaluating the position of another from the position of an outsider (Kahn and Zeidler 2019 ). Accordingly, perspective-taking exercises yield the best results when a person truly empathizes with the other person and considers emotions, values, and personal circumstances. To be able to recognize the full spectrum of implications a situation can have on a person, it helps to understand the difference between hard and soft impacts. While hard impacts describe the quantifiable and supposedly value-neutral risks, soft impacts describe the impacts that are not quantifiable or difficult to quantify, such as the impact on emotions, values, ideas, and behaviors (Swierstra and te Molder 2012 ). These soft impacts consider the possible impact of biomedical innovations on an individual’s or group’s emotions, ideas, and behavior, thus painting a picture of their circumstances. As such, these soft impacts could be used as input for creating fictional personal narratives.

Using fictional personal narratives to discuss cases, instead of using more factual and objective descriptions, stimulates moral imagination to consider someone else’s perspective. This can increase a student’s understanding of the social impact of the situation and invoke empathy for the psychological state of those involved (Miyasaka et al. 2000 ). Literature and the arts have also been described as valuable sources for cultivating moral imagination to engage with other perspectives (Nussbaum 1991 , 2003 ; Pardales 2002 ). Through narratives, drama, or literature, students can engage with characters with a worldview considerably different from their own. This allows students to compare their standpoints to those of others and come to a more sophisticated and balanced opinion (Archila et al. 2022 ; Leung and Cheng 2022 ; Miyasaka et al. 2000 ). Using pre- and post-reading prompts could further stimulate students’ reflections. These prompts could ask students to imaginatively change the gender, cultural background, and previous experiences of the individuals involved, or imaginatively change the environment in which a situation happens (Kahn and Zeidler 2016 ). Using these types of prompts could contribute to a more detailed understanding of the factors that can change someone’s experiences of a situation.

In the teaching strategies described above, students are asked to experience a situation through a single perspective, possibly changing to a different perspective when doing the exercise multiple times. However, additional value can be found in experiencing the interplay between different people holding different perspectives. Students can experience such interplay through role-playing exercises. Role-playing exercises are described as having value in ethics education in multiple disciplines (Doorn and Kroesen 2013 ; Jasemi et al. 2022 ; Martin et al. 2019 ; Simonneaux 2001 ). While not essential, most examples of role-playing exercises ask for students to overcome disagreements and come to a compromise. The benefit of students working towards a conclusion is that it will show that oftentimes it is impossible to come to a solution that is preferential for all perspectives involved. These role-playing exercises can show the necessity of establishing an order of importance in the arguments of those involved to come to a solution (Simonneaux 2001 ). This process of explicit evaluation of and ranking the importance of the different considerations and arguments aids moral reasoning.

Strategies that tap into merit 3

The final merit describes the use of moral imagination to decipher the best possible action in cases of moral dilemmas or challenges. Imagination in this case can be used to envision the outcomes of different actions in mind, and by doing this explore different outcomes. An often-described method to compare actions in a professional setting is the use of scenarios or vignettes to reflect on the outcomes of different actions (Boenink et al. 2010 ; Stemerding et al. 2010 ; van der Burg 2016 ). The same scenarios and exercises are useful when considering the ethical implications of biomedical innovations in educational settings. For these scenarios to become plausible, they should not only be based on the imaginative interpretation of the perspectives involved but should also involve research outcomes and expert opinions (Boenink et al. 2010 ; Stemerding et al. 2010 ). However, while scenarios should not be based on complete speculation, some specific speculation is necessary (Lucivero et al. 2011 ). This speculation should consider the desirability of an innovation and what the uptake of the innovation in society would be, by considering the expectations of different stakeholders, including the public, when writing the scenarios and vignettes (Lucivero 2016 ). For example, stem cell research is accompanied by stem cell hype, which could lead to expectations that researchers cannot meet (Caulfield et al. 2016 ). A scenario considering the ethical implications of stem cell research might therefore include the clash between the expectations and the eventual biomedical innovation since this could help students reflect on the desirability of this biomedical innovation.

Teaching strategies in which students reflect on different prewritten scenarios portraying the outcomes from multiple actions from the perspectives of different stakeholders can be used for students to start looking for the best outcomes. As a follow-up exercise students can be asked to come up with their own action options and thus develop narratives of what might result from these different actions through the process of futures thinking. Futures thinking is utilized to detect, invent, analyze, and evaluate probable futures to distinguish preferable futures (Jones et al. 2012 ). Exercises in which student invent their own possible and probable futures allows students to combine their understanding of relevant scientific concepts, social, political, and economic factors that can influence the future, as well as their knowledge of how the perspectives of others can influence decision-making (Jones et al. 2012 ). Comparing multiple futures, individually or amongst peers, can stimulate discussion on what futures are preferable. Imagining such preferable futures could stimulate reflection on what meaningful actions could bring about this preferable future. For example, when students need to work on a plan for the implementation of innovations, establishing when the implementation meets the needs and values of different stakeholders can help in identifying meaningful actions in the implementation process (Betten et al. 2018 ).

In this article, we have argued that teaching strategies that activate moral imagination are beneficial for the development of moral sensitivity and moral reasoning in the context of ethics education for biomedical researchers. Through its three merits, moral imagination can help to 1) transfer and apply abstract moral concepts to concrete situations and contexts, 2) explore the perspective of others, 3) explore and foresee the moral consequences of different decisions and action options.

Although we focus on ethics education for biomedical researchers, the potential of moral imagination in ethics education is much broader. In clinical ethics education the potential of the merits of moral imagination might even be more obvious. Moral principles like beneficence and non-maleficence are core principles in clinical practice, making them less abstract as compared to these same principles in biomedical research practices. This potentially makes it easier for educators to design moral imagination exercises that resonate with the students. When considering the merit of perspective-taking, the perspective of the individual affected by the situation, the patient, is very prominent in the work of healthcare professionals. This offers a rich and self-evident source for perspective-taking exercises in clinical ethics education. In contrast, in biomedical research it is often unclear which specific individuals are or will be affected, making it much more difficult to activate perspective-taking when students explore biomedical research ethics. Finally, the actions of the healthcare professionals often have a clear and direct impact on the patient. Because real-life clinical cases offer such concrete decision-making scenarios to students, these cases can be used in clinical ethics education to directly tap into the merit of comparing actions and anticipating the consequences of actions. In research ethics the consequences that need to be anticipated by students often lie in the (far) future and are more difficult to imagine. Therefore, additional effort is needed to get students to the point where they feel comfortable and sufficiently equipped to explore such complex future scenarios. This example of the use of moral imagination in clinical education illustrates that the merits we describe are not discipline-specific. Rather, students in a broad range of disciplines can benefit from education that operationalizes these merits in exercises that are tailored to their specific contexts.

A next step in exploring the educational potential of moral imagination involves empirically testing educational interventions that tap into the described merits. This would further our insight as to how moral imagination supports students in the process of ethical decision making. These interventions can focus on a single merit or combine multiple merits in one exercise. As an example of an intervention focusing on a single merit, close examination of perspective-taking activities can provide additional information on how students integrate different perspectives in their ethical reflections. This could be done by comparing the reflections of students who were prompted to take the perspectives of different stakeholders to the reflections of students who did not receive such a prompt. Interesting findings include the extent to which students recognize the moral aspects during this exercise and how many perspectives students take into consideration. By following students during multiple perspective-taking exercises, insights could be gained into the transferability of perspective-taking. Are students more inclined to consider specific perspectives in other contexts and situations once they have imagined themselves standing in these specific shoes? An intervention that combines multiple merits in one exercise can provide insights into the interplay between the different merits. For example, it would be interesting to examine if a similar sequential relation as is described between moral sensitivity and moral reasoning can be observed between the different merits of moral imagination. By prompting the students to engage in all three merits sequentially, the added effect of the individual merits on ethical decision making can be examined.

In conclusion, it is good to note that extensive and proactive ethical reflection is necessary to guide the implementation of biomedical innovation in society. While ethicists are in the lead of these reflections, we expect it will become more common for researchers to be involved in the extensive ethical reflections of biomedical innovations through collaborations with ethicists and other stakeholders. Therefore, ethics education should aim to prepare biomedical researchers not only to make ethical decisions in their daily professional practices but also to contribute to these extensive ethical reflections of biomedical innovations. Professionals that are familiar with using the merits of moral imagination might be better equipped to collaborate with others to answer the ethical questions that biomedical innovations raise.

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Gerrits, E.M., Assen, L.S., Noordegraaf-Eelens, L. et al. Moral imagination as an instrument for ethics education for biomedical researchers. International Journal of Ethics Education 8 , 275–289 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40889-023-00171-z

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Moral Imagination: Essays Kindle Edition

Compelling essays from one of today's most esteemed cultural critics Spanning many historical and literary contexts, Moral Imagination brings together a dozen recent essays by one of America's premier cultural critics. David Bromwich explores the importance of imagination and sympathy to suggest how these faculties may illuminate the motives of human action and the reality of justice. These wide-ranging essays address thinkers and topics from Gandhi and Martin Luther King on nonviolent resistance, to the dangers of identity politics, to the psychology of the heroes of classic American literature. Bromwich demonstrates that moral imagination allows us to judge the right and wrong of actions apart from any benefit to ourselves, and he argues that this ability is an innate individual strength, rather than a socially conditioned habit. Political topics addressed here include Edmund Burke and Richard Price's efforts to define patriotism in the first year of the French Revolution, Abraham Lincoln’s principled work of persuasion against slavery in the 1850s, the erosion of privacy in America under the influence of social media, and the use of euphemism to shade and anesthetize reactions to the global war on terror. Throughout, Bromwich considers the relationship between language and power, and the insights language may offer into the corruptions of power. Moral Imagination captures the singular voice of one of the most forceful thinkers working in America today.

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"David Bromwich is the most penetrating cultural critic in contemporary America. No one writes more shrewdly or eloquently about the pathologies of our public discourse. His essays are grounded in a firm grasp of modern intellectual history, but he wears his learning lightly. Moral Imagination reveals Bromwich's extraordinary combination of aesthetic elegance and ethical seriousness, as he dissects the insidious alliance of identity politics, publicity culture, and imperial fantasy--even while he reminds us of the forgotten strengths of our own political tradition. This is a book to treasure for its prose as well as for the power of its insights." --Jackson Lears, author of Rebirth of a Nation

"If multiculturalism were to shed its aspirations to mere correctness, if it were to get an elaboration that kept faith with the liberal vitalities of individual conscience and fulfillment, it would need to give moral imagination a more central role. That is the integration that David Bromwich seeks to attain in these essays as he shrewdly and eloquently gazes upon the past and present of American politics, the speeches and actions of figures ranging from Burke through Lincoln to King and Gandhi, and the prose and poetry of Wordsworth and Dickinson, Woolf and Whitman, and Emerson and Thoreau. Politics is made a loftier subject by such a humane literary scrutiny, even as literature is made more deeply central to our thinking lives." --Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia University

"David Bromwich is one of the most incisive writers in America today. In his rapid, straightforward, and convincing style, he has written an intellectually powerful and morally compelling book, one that is not only urgently needed in the current climate but also has permanent value." --Edward Mendelson, author of The Things That Matter

"For several decades, David Bromwich has stood out among American critics as one of the most daring and knowledgeable challengers of received opinion and orthodoxies. This fresh and timely selection of essays effectively conveys the values which inform Bromwich's provocative cultural and political criticism, and will introduce his bold and cogent moral imagination to a wide readership." --Margery Sabin, Wellesley College

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Defining “Moral Imagination”

Inspired by Patrick Deenan’s outstanding essay about sociologist and cultural philosopher Robert Nisbet, I’d like to define a term that appears as a theme in his work and was popularized by Russell Kirk: the moral imagination.

It can be defined as a uniquely human ability to conceive of fellow humanity as moral beings and as persons, not as objects whose value rests in utility or usefulness. It is a process by which a self “creates” metaphor from images recorded by the senses and stored in memory, which are then occupied to find and suppose moral correspondences in experience. An intuitive ability to perceive ethical truths and abiding law in the midst of chaotic experience, the moral imagination should be an aspiration to a proper ordering of the soul and, consequently, of the commonwealth. In this conception, to be a citizen is not to be an autonomous individual; it is a status given by a born existence into a world of relations to others. To be fully human is to embrace the duties and obligations toward a purpose of security and endurance for, first and foremost, the family and the local community. Success is measured by the development of character, not the fleeting emotions of status. Thinking “sacramentally,” (meaning humans are connected with a sacramental order of creation, a configuration of the mind in communion with the divine and beyond the rational) this is a sense that nature was created in such a manner that humans can draw “true analogies,” wisdom inaccessible by scientific method. Lived experiences, registered in memory and conjured through other experiences, can be interpreted through imagination so that memories may become images, analogous to the experience.

The phrase belongs to Edmund Burke. Despairing of the strong and quick changes that French revolutionaries were bringing to the established customs and institutions of civil society, he wrote in Reflections on the Revolution in France :

“But now all is to be changed. All the pleasing illusions, which made power gentle, and obedience liberal, which harmonized the different shades of life, and which, by bland assimilation, incorporated the politics the sentiments which beautify and soften private society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason. All the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off. All of the superadded ideas, furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imagination, which the heart owns and the understanding ratifies, as necessary to cover the defects of our own naked shivering nature, and to raise it to dignity in our estimation, are to be exploded as ridiculous, absurd, and antiquated fashion.”

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