On The Relationship Between Guilt And The Cultivation Of Virtue

In the view of virtue ethics,moral emotion is important in the expression and cultivation of virtue,and sympathy,fear,pity,shame or other emotions have received their attention.However,guilt,as an emotion closely related to moral reflection,has not been fully valued by virtue ethicists.With the deepening of the study,virtue ethicists began to pay attention to the important role of guilt in virtue cultivation,but some scholars still hold the view that guilt plays a negative role in virtue cultivation.Under the background of the revival of virtue ethics and the guidance of a concept of virtue with pluralistic characteristics,this paper attempts to take guilt as the core of the discussion,comb different views on the relationship between guilt and virtue cultivation,and combine with the empirical research of contemporary moral psychology in order to further expand and extend the positive effect of guilt on virtue cultivation.On the one hand,guilt can promote empathetic concern.Guilt is concerned about the impact of agent's behaviour on others,which is positively related to the empathy mechanism directed by others.Empathic concern,as a virtue,can trigger helpful behaviour and restrain aggressive behaviour.On the other hand,guilt,especially virtual guilt,can be used as moral motivation to stimulate the moral behaviour of agents.Once guilt comes into being,it will become the motivational force for agents to take compensatory behaviour,thus prompting agents to carry out moral self-regulation and self-education,so as to realize the cultivation of virtue.On this basis,this paper responds to two representative questions from the negative side: one is that guilt has a negative impact on mental health,and the other is that guiltdriven help behaviour does not have moral connotations.By combining the relevant empirical evidence,this paper demonstrates that these two negative views do not constitute a challenge to the relationship between guilt and virtue cultivation.