Literature and Moral Understanding
A Philosophical Essay on Ethics, Aesthetics, Education, and Culture
Published on 10. September 1992
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-19-824232-1 (ISBN)
Description
Recent philosophical discussion about the relation between fiction and reality pays little heed to our moral involvement with literature. Frank Palmer's purpose is to investigate how our appreciation of literary works calls upon and develops our capacity for moral understanding. He explores a wide range of philosophical questions about the relation of art to morality, and challenges theories which he regards as incompatible with a humane view of literary art. Dr Palmer considers, in particular, the extent to which the values and moral concepts involved in our understanding of human beings can be said to enter into our understanding of, and response to, fictional characters. The scope of his discussion encompasses literary aesthetics, ethics, and epistemology, and he makes extensive reference to literary examples.
Reviews / Votes
'should be welcomed for its insistence upon the essential relationship between art and life; and for its stand against those current theories of criticism which seek to dehumanize literature'Edwin Webb, Use of English 'a timely book ... Palmer's alternative approach, which proceeds by means of austere, clear and persistent arguments, will greatly interest serious students of aesthetics and of literature. Palmer's book is very good indeed ... it will stimulate its scholarly readers for a long time to come and, one hopes, keep its undergraduate audience on the straight and narrow path of wholesome philosophical analysis.'
Suzanne Stern-Gillet, Bolton Institute, British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 34, No. 6, Oct '94 The discussion is clear and robust ... the book is a work of vigorous polemic which should give rise to valuable discussion. * Review of English Studies *
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Oxford University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
518 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-824232-1 (9780198242321)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Frank Palmer is a freelance writer
Content
Part 1 Fictional persons and fictional worlds: fictional persons; fictional existence; possible worlds; fictional worlds. Part 2 Fiction versus fantasy, pretence and make-believe: games and language-games; make-believe as fantasy; imagination. Part 3 The moral attitudes: deeds and doers; moral attitudes as mere feelings; blame as accountancy or record-keeping; difficulties with this argument; facts and values; the human world. Part 4 Moral responses to fictional characters: Radford's argument; Weston's argument. Part 5 Readers and spectators: understanding, emotion and moral response; fictional narrator and implied reader; access to characters and the form of our attitudes; the myth of the disappearing author. Part 6 Life in art: truth in art; fictional life not continuous? - order and meaning in art. Part 7 Bad morality, bad art?: artistic and moral appraisal; agreement and acceptance; art and evil; love and the creative act; the artist nd moral responsibility; art and negativity. Part 8 Learning from literature: the problem; the cognitivist theory; telling and showing; moral understanding and an epistemology of value; morality, language and culture; ritual and celebration.