ABSTRACT
It is axiomatic that if ‘good’ actions naturally flowed from the human encounter concerns about moral education would be redundant. It is equally clear that reflections on ‘the good’ are as important today as in the sixteenth century. For advanced industrial societies questions surrounding action and reflection have become increasingly vexed in recent times, the difficulties compounded by the disappearance of any clear moral narrative to which the many peoples and cultures inhabiting the same geographical and historical space can jointly subscribe. It is partly for this reason that the activity of an educational framework aimed at nurturing sympathetic and empathetic moral engagement has been placed under increasing strain by an alternative vision of educational purposes. Primary relationships are redefined in terms of globalised systems of exchange and control which banish serious moral consideration of the ‘other.’ In this chapter we trace the evolution and consequences of this process in three stages. We begin by reflecting on some of the conditions which have given rise to and sustain this model of exchange. We then explore the consequent displacement of authenticity as a central feature of contemporary moral life. We conclude by discussing the connection between the recovery of authenticity and the cultivation of moral feeling.
