Abstract

This dissertation is an examination of the ontological status of global character traits. Do global character traits exist? If so, what are they and how do they work? Globalism represents the most intuitive and widespread conception of global character traits. According to this conception, possession of robust character traits explains systematic behavioral manifestations. However, as the work of Gilbert Harman and Jon Doris demonstrates, Globalism has problems. The social psychological behavioral empirical literature fails to vindicate the behavioral expectations that come with Globalism. Essentially, we aren't cross-situationally consistent, our behavior in one trait-relevant situation is not strongly correlated with our behavior in a different trait-relevant situation. This literature has led to the emergence of Situationism, the social psychological theory that powerful situational features are primarily causally efficacious in the performance of behavior. It certainly appears as though Situationism is true, and our behavior is conditioned by surprising features of the situation, subtle features that are significantly more powerful than we intuitively believe. Accordingly, I present my own view, Practice-Driven Globalism as a solution to the problem presented by Situationism. Global character traits are illusory, yet they are very useful posits. These traits have epistemic, functional, normative, and educational utility. They play a vital role in the core human practices of casting a conception of the self and others, constructing a narrative, making moral judgments, and providing moral education. Practice-Driven Globalism is a hybrid view; Someone (S) should use Globalism as the default position to explain and evaluate behavior (B) unless S knows, or has good reasons to believe, that situational features are primarily causally efficacious in the performance of B. Just as a NASA scientist utilizes Newtonian mechanics to launch a satellite and then Relativistic mechanics in order to use that satellite for GPS purposes, we should use Globalism in some instances and Situationism in others. Practice-Driven Globalism enhances our empirically informed moral psychology by meeting the challenge of Situationism while providing grounds for the maintenance of our old framework for certain purposes.