Ethics in Light of Childhood (Paperback)

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.