A New Vocabulary for Moral Education

Abstract

The preceding chapters illustrate an almost painful shift away from a traditional, religion-based understanding of conscience to one that returns to the earliest notion of synteresis, with a focus on self-awareness, self-judgment, inner knowledge, intuitive reasoning, and reciprocal altruism. This is a shift away from some highly developed, yet negative, oppressive, and sin-oriented understandings, as evident in long established theological writings and even in those of Enlightenment (e.g. Emmanuel Kant).