Martha Nussbaum on 21st Century Enlightenment, empathy and the humanities

Emotional intelligence (EI), moral behaviour and stroke lesions

EI is linked to virtues like sincerity, having a good perception of one's own and other
people’s feelings, being capable of communicating our feelings to others,
being capable of controlling our emotions, self-esteem, not
giving up in the face of adversity, social awareness, being empathetic, being
satisfied with one's own lives, being confident and optimistic... (see e.g. 1 or 2 for different approches to EI)

Recent research - see "The impact of stroke on emotional intelligence"  Hoffmann e.a. (2010)  - suggest certain stroke lesions impair emotional intelligence.

The authors of the study conclude that:

"Stroke impairs EI and is associated with the three principal frontal syndrome
complexes of apathy, disinhibition and dysexecutive functioning. In addition
it was demonstrated that an extensive emotional network, at least by lesion
analysis, impairs EI. Does EI testing really matter? Neuroplasticity is an
inherent process whereby the brain shapes itself through repeated experiences.
The corresponding neural connections are strengthened and the ones less used,
weakened. The discovery of the relatively late maturation of the
prefrontal circuitry for modulation of emotion suggests a neurological window
of opportunity for helping children (or adults), for example to learn the best
EI repertoire. With the newly appreciated concept of adult neurogenesis
and ongoing neuroplasticity, one may extrapolate that this applies to people
with stroke or traumatic brain injury."

The Virtue of Creativity

Susan Greenfield on creativity (2008):

The Neuroscientific Basis of Virtue

A New Science of Virtues Symposium: January 28-30, 2010
Susan Greenfield, University of Oxford

"Whilst virtue can be manifest in many forms, for example, generosity, compassion, restraint or wisdom, antithetical traits might now be characterising the culture of the 21st Century: selfishness, low empathy, poor self-control, and hedonism. We could also add a further reciprocal pair of behaviours: the virtue of being mindful of consequences versus the recklessness that President Obama recently identified as lying at the core of the current financial crisis. The aim of this project is to explore the brain mechanisms that could be critical in triggering behaviours such as recklessness, poor self-control and reduced empathy;

most importantly, we plan to investigate at the level of the physical brain, the hypothesis that such ‘non-virtuous’ behaviours could be accentuated by the highly novel 21st Century environment of digital age technology. Only then can we ensure that such technologies are harnessed in a way that minimises any threat and maximises the potential for virtue. Between 1996 and 2005, 179 scholarly scientific papers were published investigating addiction to the internet and video games. Indeed, one particular study reports that a child between the age of 10-11 years old spends, on average, 900 hours in class, 1277 hours with their family, and 1934 hours in front of a screen (either television or computer). If the screen-based lifestyle of the 21st century is an unprecedented and pervasive phenomenon, then what effect might prolonged and frequent video gaming and Internet use have on the mental state of a species whose most basic talent is a highly sensitive adaptability to whatever environment in which it is placed?"

The Science of Virtues Research Network (University of Chicago)

The Arete Initiative at the University of Chicago is a research program on a New Science of Virtues. This is a multidisciplinary research initiative that seeks contributions from individuals and from teams of investigators working within the humanities and the sciences. More.. http://scienceofvirtues.org/