Introduction

 

Ethics Center rotating gif

What Causes Moral Behavior?

Exploring this quintessential question at the heart of ethics is the goal of the UCI Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality. The center was established in 2003 by a group of scholars from social sciences, social ecology, biological sciences and medicine interested in recent scientific research that yields insight on the origins and causes of morality. In creating the center, UCI faculty are addressing topics that reflect critically on the moral implications of the new frontiers in science.

Housed in the School of Social Sciences, the center convenes faculty, researchers, graduate students, and visiting scholars from all disciplines to conduct studies, present lectures and publish professional papers and proceedings from public talks and organized conferences.

 

OUR CHOICES
I write not as Director of the Ethics Center but as a scholar who has spent most of her professional life trying to understand the psychology of prejudice and hate that erupts in war, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other related forms of unspeakable, unbearable, unjustifiable immorality. As the human tragedy in the Middle East unfolds, I thought I would share this video (https://youtu.be/HDI2P4dOsJ8?si=Si16rd18ePAJSRHq) from the new president of Harvard, which captures much of what seems most important for members of university communities to remember.

Yours,
Kristen Monroe

 

Politics, Principle and Standing Up to Donald Trump: Moral Courage in the Republican Party (Ethics International, UK. On Amazon.)

 
Book CoverA new book coauthored by UCI political scientist Kristen Monroe discusses ethics and principles and their relative place in politics. The book was written with 13 students in the summer mentoring program: Daniel Delpassand, Isabelle Dastgheib, Aniket Kamat, Alexis Kim, Brock Lichthardt, Manasaa Meenakshi, Antonia Park, Elise Park, Evan Razmjoo, Max Razmjoo, Luca Shakoori, Sunny Sun, and Daniel Yoon.

It can be purchased on Amazon

In Politics, Principle and Standing Up to Donald Trump: Moral Courage in the Republican Party (Ethics International Press Ltd, UK), UCI Distinguished Professor of Political Science Kristen Monroe and her student coauthors offer insight into moral courage in politics. They draw on in-depth interviews, public speeches, social media, and archival data to analyze four sets of diehard, conservative Republicans who nonetheless broke with President Trump: (1) Senators John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Jeff Flake; (2) Congressional Representatives Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney; (3) committed, stalwart Republican leaders like Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project; and (4) dedicated White House officeholders like Miles Taylor and Anthony Scaramucci. What made these conservative Republicans stand up to Trump when so many others have not? Their answer provides new analytical insights into the Trump phenomenon, our understanding of moral courage in politics, and what the re-election of the former president could mean for the future of American democracy.

For an interview about this book with an American civil rights activist, please click here