ABSTRACT
The kind of liberal approach to moral education argued for here has its roots in an intellectual movement that stretches from the Seventeenth Century to the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, a movement known as the Enlightenment. This chapter sets the scene for the argument that follows by explaining the pivotal role that the Enlightenment is commonly supposed to have had in shaping our current moral climate. In particular, we will see why the Enlightenment is commonly thought to be the root cause of many of today’s social problems – why it’s claimed that we’re now living with the Enlightenment’s ‘twisted legacy’ (Phillips 1998: 233).
