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Synopsis

Why do people so often fail to act consistently on what they already recognise as the better thing to do? In many areas of everyday life—from small acts of civic consideration to larger questions of environmentally responsible behaviour—individuals frequently acknowledge the right course of action yet struggle to perform it in a sustained manner. This seminar examines the gap between ethical recognition and ethical consistency. Drawing on familiar situations and everyday decision-making, it explores how individuals often negotiate themselves away from actions they already perceive as ethical or more responsible. These quiet negotiations—what might be called forms of moral bargaining—introduce external validators such as uncertain outcomes, reciprocity, or perceived insignificance, which gradually erode the likelihood of acting consistently. By shifting attention away from distant outcomes and toward the ethical intelligibility of the act in the present moment, the lecture suggests a way of understanding why ethical actions falter and how they might be stabilised in practice. Toward the end, the talk introduces a concept—the Ethics of the Unfolding Present—that captures this perspective and gestures toward its broader implications.

Speaker

Harvey’s research interests include urban futures, policy-making at the local scale, and the human dimensions of nature-society interactions & environmental change. At the LKYCIC, Harvey heads the “Cities and Urban Science” and “Urban Environmental Sustainability” programmes, both of which have a broad interest in applied research that realises individuals’ potential to live better in an unpredictable world. He is concurrently the Director of the MSc (Urban Science, Policy and Planning) and sits on the Research Advisory Panel of HDB (Singapore), International Advisory Board of Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation Book Series (published by University of Georgia Press), Geoforum and Progress in Environmental Geography.

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