Altruism, Non-relational Care, and Global Citizenship Education

Abstract

The potential roles of care, compassion, and related altruistic emotions in civic action have been continually defended in recent years against the Stoic and Kantian focus on deemphasizing or reducing emotion in moral reason. 1 Many further argue that the cultivation of emotions such as empathy, pity, and sympathy toward diverse others is a crucial component of an education toward living ethically with others both locally and globally. We find such views in calls for certain kinds of multicultural education, citizenship education for "compassionate globalization," and education for understanding (and combating) white privilege. 2 However, defenders of emotions concede that they can play fleeting, or even harmful, roles in shaping altruistic moral action, without restraint or appropriate judgment. Emotional learning can also lead students to take a step back and turn away, in confusion, anger, guilt, or fear. Even when emotional learning and development is aligned with educators' aims, the actions that emotions motivate may be ineffective, or worse, may not lead to positive social change, and/or may lead students to take a cynical perspective. 3