Abstract
Moral education as traditionally taught is fatally flawed. It speaks in general terms and presents general rules. It cannot provide the illumination of the ethical that young people need. But art and literature can do this, as argued by the prominent philosophers John Dewey and Iris Murdoch. They do not suggest simply teaching art as such, instead offering art as vicarious experience of moral choice and consequence best understood in terms of virtue. The young person needs to be able to see the good, not simply a calculation of it.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty.
—John Keats
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rethorst, J. (2023). Utility, Principle, Virtue. In: Why Teaching Art Is Teaching Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19511-2_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19511-2_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-19510-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-19511-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)