This paper outlines a framework for explicitly including ethics in actuarial education. The framework includes integrity, the cardinal virtues (justice, prudence, self-control and courage), and vocation. It is based on a traditional understanding of ethics, and it is argued that it has the potential to be widely acceptable. Justification, from philosophy, is found mainly in virtue ethics, and the work of Alasdair MacIntyre. The framework is concerned with matters of character as well as behaviour and ultimate outcomes (which are the respective concerns of apparently competing deontological and teleological theories). Integrity and the cardinal virtues can be found within current professional standards or, it is argued in the case of courage, should be there. We come to appreciate and display the virtues as we are inducted into a professional community by teachers and mentors. Our view of ethics is incomplete, however, without acknowledgement of our own weaknesses and failures, and an understanding of the role of regulation. Such understanding should include insight into the way in which ideologies and institutions can pervert ethics for the benefit of vested interests. Finally, suggestions are made as to how the framework of the virtues can be included in the actuarial syllabuses.

Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning. Author's Response

Explicitly incorporating virtues into actuarial education

Changing Places: Narratives of Spiritual Conversion during the First College Year

/pdf/narratives-of-competency-creativity-and-comfort-religion-and-3zd8e8ucjf.pdf

Narratives of competency, creativity, and comfort: Religion and spirituality in counselor education

Until the late eighteenth century, religions, particularly in the West, were defined by their sacred texts and dogmatic formulations. Friedrich Schleiermacher, in the late eighteenth century, was one of the first scholars that attempted to define “religion” by switching from a doctrinal emphasis to a more cognitive, visceral, or intuitive one. Schleiermacher defined religion as a “feeling of absolute dependence.” Since his day most attempts at a general definition of religion have relied heavily on emphasizing the intuitive, emotional, or visceral elements rather than the doctrinal ones. This shift has important implications for bringing a neuroscientific approach to the study of religion. However, this also results in a neuroscientific approach to both religious and non-religious spirituality and spiritual experiences. In fact, as the definitions have evolved, the distinction between spirituality and religiousness has become much more complicated.

The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience

This study examines the relationship between age and three aspects of religion: basis of belief, attitude toward religious experience, and frequency of religious practices, in a sample of 1027 Catholic diocesan priests in the United States. Older priests were found to be more certain of their belief and to base such belief more on logic and less on experience than younger priests. The younger the priest, the more he tended to experience God through people and events. Younger priests engaged in interpersonal religious practices more than older priests while older priests engaged in solitary religious practices more than younger priests. It is suggested that the effect of Vatican II must be taken into account in interpreting findings.

Age-Related Differences in Beliefs, Attitudes and Practices of Priests

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0360966900022052

Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning. Author's Response

Citations

Explicitly incorporating virtues into actuarial education

Changing Places: Narratives of Spiritual Conversion during the First College Year

Narratives of competency, creativity, and comfort: Religion and spirituality in counselor education

The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience

Age-Related Differences in Beliefs, Attitudes and Practices of Priests

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