A Study on the Moral Relativism Problem of L. F. Barrett’s ‘The Theory of Constructed Emotion’: Focusing on the Implications of Elementary Moral Education

L. F. Barrett criticizes the existing essential view of emotion and insists on ‘The theory of constructed emotion’. From the perspective of construction, emotions are not passive reactions, but rather a process of active meaning construction based on concepts accumulated in experience. L. F. Barrett’s theory, which provides a new perception about emotions, suggests a new direction when educating emotions in moral education. However, L. F. Barrett’s theory falls into the problem of relativism in terms of moral emotion. In other words, problems claiming different moral legitimacy for different emotions felt in the same problem situation arise. Therefore, this study focuses on emotional language to overcome the relativism problem of moral emotion. In particular, it is intended to provide a basis for solving the problem of moral relativism by distinguishing the language of thin ethical concepts and the language of thick ethical concepts of meta-ethics. As a specific educational method for this, the application of role play for the communication and expansion of concepts, and the learning of emotional concepts were presented.