Art, Emotion and Ethics is a systematic investigation of the relation of art to morality, a topic that has been of central and recurring interest to the philosophy of art since Plato. Berys Gaut explores the various positions that have been taken in this debate, and argues that an artwork is always aesthetically flawed insofar as it possesses a moral defect that is aesthetically relevant. Three main arguments are developed for this view; these involve showing how moral goodness is itself a kind of beauty, that artworks can teach us about morality and that this is under certain conditions an aesthetic merit in them, and that our emotional responses to works of art are properly guided in part by moral considerations.
What does it mean to find a gene or set of genes that are associated with ADHD, schizophrenia, or autism? Could we eradicate such diseases from our species through gene therapy? Is it possible to eradicate from our genome the genetic material that predisposes us to be too aggressive, too shy, less intelligent, or not active enough? Who has the political power and/or moral authority to make these decisions?
This book examines the representation of female desire in a broad range of fiction from the late sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century, discussing key texts such as Jane Eyre, Pamela, Pride and Prejudice and Arcadia. It focuses on the emerging tensions between moral, social, and generic constraints on female behavior.
A Companion to the Eighteenth-century Novel furnishes readers with a sophisticated vision of the eighteenth-century novel in its political, aesthetic, and moral contexts. * An up-to-date resource for the study of the eighteenth-century novel. * Furnishes readers with a sophisticated vision of the eighteenth-century novel in its political, aesthetic, and moral contexts. * Foregrounds those topics of most historical and political relevance to the twenty-first century.