Overview
- Considers in detail why art is, as Plato thought, the nearest clue to ethics
- Discusses in detail how literature can provide moral illumination
- Brings traditional and current thinking in both philosophy and education, to help young people become good people
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This exhaustively-researched, carefully-focused book asks whether imagination, emotion and art can enlighten our sense of right and wrong, looking at this question through the lens of moral philosophy with contributions from cognitive science, psychology and neurology.
If moral thinking is simply logical reasoning or following God-given law, why did the poet Shelley say that “the great instrument of moral good is the imagination”? Why does ethical reasoning tend towards absolutes: something is either right or wrong, period, while a thoughtful minority values the “priority of the particular” – that unique aspects of a situation may come closer to the heart of the matter than any general rules could? Are emotions, as many philosophers in history have theorized, only a distraction from the clear perception of duty, or do feelings add something important, even critical, to how we judge good and bad, right and wrong? Can great works of art and literature embody imagination, the particular, and emotions to illuminate human life in ways crucial to ethical thinking?This book introduces an original idea in philosophy, “moral density,” which for the first time elucidates the profound relation between art and ethics. Written for the literate layperson, an academic or technical background is not necessary, so this book will be of interest not only to philosophers and educators, but to all who are concerned with what is good, and how to see it and teach it.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
John Rethorst has taught at Cornell University and other colleges and schools in the United States and Europe. Beyond the academic community, he has been a railroad telegraph operator, newspaper reporter and photographer, a sailor on a polar icebreaker, has worked on a dairy farm, written computer software, and lived and studied in a Zen Buddhist monastery.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Why Teaching Art Is Teaching Ethics
Authors: John Rethorst
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19511-2
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-19510-5Published: 02 January 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-19513-6Published: 03 January 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-19511-2Published: 01 January 2023
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 162
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations
Topics: Philosophy of Education, Philosophy, general, Aesthetics