Ethics in Light of Childhood - Softcover

Wall, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1589016920 ISBN 13: 9781589016927

Publisher: Georgetown University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Children make up one third of all humanity. Yet too often children are perceived as merely undeveloped adults, pre-moral and innocent, remaining marginalized figures in our ethical landscape. Across diverse societies and cultures, throughout history and today, serious questions about being human and about moral behavior are almost always understood from the perspective of adulthood. Ethicist John Wall proposes a Copernican shift, contending that considerations of childhood should not only have greater importance on our ethical lives but that they should fundamentally transform how morality is understood and practiced. The experiences of children, Wall argues, should become new lenses for interpreting what it means to exist, to live good lives, and to form just communities--much in the same way that feminism legitimizes the experiences of women for the benefit of all humankind. In Part 1 Wall examines traditional Western assumptions about children that continue, for good and for ill, to ground ethical life today. Part II constructs a more fully child-responsive moral theory, using the strengths and weaknesses or our inherited historical perspectives. Part III further refines this ethical vision by considering three specific areas of social practice: human rights, family life, and ethical thinking. In each case, the point of view of childhood is shown to expand what it means to be human in social relations. This is the meaning of ethics in light of childhood: not to dismiss or minimize adult experiences of the moral life, but to widen them to include considerations of children.

About this title

Review:

Creative, thought-provoking book . . . will interest psychologists and philosophers and any others with a serious interest in developmental psychology and ethics.

--Choice

The author takes us on a stimulating journey through considerations of history, theory and practice, and frequently relies on the perceptions of children themselves to illustrate the points he wants to make. He does this through the device of recounting children's stories of their own experience. . . . It is rare for an adult to put a moral and ethical case quite so succinctly.

--Children & Society

A game-changing book for the field of Christian ethics. . . . Ethics should be read widely, and not only bythose who are explicitely conducting research involving children and childhood. While it has much to offer these scholars, Ethics real benefit lies in the possibilities that it opens up for both fundamental and practical ethics more broadly conceived.

--Conversations in Religion and Theology

About the Author:

John Wall is an associate professor of religion, with a joint appointment in childhood studies, at Rutgers University. He is the author of Moral Creativity, and coeditor of Paul Ricoeur and Contemporary Moral Thought and Marriage, Health and the Professions, as well as the forthcoming Children and Armed Conflict. He was also the coeditor of a nine-volume book series, Religion, Marriage, and Family.

About this edition

• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1589016920
• ISBN 13: 9781589016927
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216