Abstract

Moral educators are faced with a number of polarizing trends, both in the political divide between liberals and conservatives and in the ideological divide between moral reasoners and character educators. Recent empirical research in psychology and anthropology, as exemplified in the work of Jonathan Haidt, has indicated that both kinds of polarization may have an evolutionary foundation. Our contribution is to evaluate the philosophical implications of such findings, and to place them within the cultural history of moral education. We also consider options in practical pedagogy for moral educators.