Abstract

Morality and ethics are most frequently identified with norms and values which one can establish, justify and apply in a reasonable way. Narrative ethics has shown, however, that this is not entirely correct and that we must account for the influence of stories and narrative traditions. By way of their paranetic character, narratives spur us on to boundary breaking responsible activity and, in so far as they have a role to play in the education process, they contribute to the narrative configuration of the person as moral subject. The human person is more than a being which autonomously configures itself as subject. He or she can only achieve full selfhood in and through constant contact with others and with alterety of texts .Within narrative ethics itself, however, an important point of discussion has arisen. Philosophers such as A. McIntyre establish an immediate connection between narrativity and ethical behaviour. Others, such as Ricoeur, show, in my opinion convincingly, that narratives only have an influence on moral behaviour in a mediate way. The function of the imagination, situated between narrativity and ethics, allows us to live in our stories and give imaginary form to our fundamental choices and actions.The fact that imagination has stepped once again into the foreground of ethical discourse in recent years is an important one. The classic moral handbooks of both the philosophers and the theologians have tended all too often to undervalue and misinterpret it