History's Moral Turn

Abstract

History is in the midst of experiencing a "moral turn." This shift has resulted from the culture wars, challenges to objectivity and truth, and various world crises. Understanding moral issues through historical narratives requires a dialogue between historians and philosophers. Philosophers need to appreciate historians' attention to circumstance and context, while historians need to be familiar with philosophical concepts such as moral luck and virtue ethics. Rather than simply rendering judgments, history in a moral mode demonstrates the complexity behind agency, character, empathy, and moral decisions.

Die Renaissance der interkulturellen Kompetenz: Der Moral Turn in den Interkulturalitätsdiskursen

“…Die immer explizitere Suche nach Handlungsorientierungen für den interkulturellen Kontakt in der Forschung zur interkulturellen Kommunikation kann zwischenzeitlich mit Recht als moral turn bezeichnet werden. Einen solchen moral turn hatten Autoren bislang bereits in der Geographieforschung (Smith 1997) und in der Geschichtswissenschaft (Cotkin 2008) bemerkt. Auf diese Weise lässt sich das reflektierende Moment der Writing-Culture-Debatte aus der Kulturanthropologie auch in der Forschung zur interkulturellen Kommunikation, die daran bislang kaum Anteil hatte, nachholen.…”

Historians and the yearning for historical justice

“…10. For a more conventional approach to the 'moral turn', see Cotkin (2008), which I read as a rather unconvincing attempt to take a moral stance without dirtying one's gloves.…”

The good citizen: Revisiting moral motivations for introducing historical consciousness in history education drawing on the writings of Gadamer

“…As a philosophical enterprise, the term HiCo emerged in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and was infused by a moral turn that took place in historical scholarship, which implied that questions about good and bad and right and wrong were recognised as important in history education (Cotkin, 2008). In relation to history education, several empirical studies show that questions related to morality or values tend to engage students and stimulate their interest in learning history.…”