Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Vol 42(4), Nov 2022, 220-237; doi:10.1037/teo0000202
The moral virtues have had prominence in social scientific research ever since Piaget’s (1932) and Kohlberg’s (1969) pioneering work on the cognitive developmental stages of justice reasoning. A less explored moral virtue is the ancient idea of agape, or love that is in service to others which includes effort and even pain on the part of the one expressing the virtue. In this work, we attempt a precise definition of agape using Aristotelian philosophical views of virtue ethics and his principles of analyzing constructs for their essences and their specific differences with related but distinct constructs. From this Aristotelian philosophical framework, we then critique existing social scientific measures of love and of agape in particular. We then provide guidelines for the development of construct-valid measures of agape that are philosophically coherent. Possible research questions to expand the scientific study of agape are presented as a way forward with this important construct that could bring psychological health to individuals and peace and unity to families and communities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)