Aesthetics, Body, and Ethics

Abstract

In this chapter, Blumenfeld-Jones presents some philosophers who engage with the idea of moral imagination. He includes Levinasian comments on their work. These philosophers are John Dewey (through Steven Fesmire, John Dewey and moral imagination: pragmatism in ethics. University of Indiana Press, Bloomington, 2003), John Paul Lederbach (The moral imagination: the art and soul of building peace. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010) and Mark Johnson (Moral imagination: implications of cognitive science for ethics. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1994). Bumenfeld-Jones also presents objections to the ethics/aesthetics intersection as well as objections to the arts. This is followed by a discussion of how Levinas is, at base, aesthetic and grounded in the body, emotions, intuitions, and imagination, especially through his invocation of sensibility. Blumenfeld-Jones finishes with a discussion of the practice of art and how it is parallel to ethical consciousness and can function as a base for addressing and enlivening ethical consciousness.