Ethics, Evil, and Fiction

Abstract

Abstract The main thesis of this book is that literature can enrich the study of ethics, because it provides the resources for the study of ethical problems that contemporary analytical moral philosophy fails to address. In Chapters 2 and 3, McGinn offers a discussion of analytical moral philosophy, in which he argues that moral goodness is an objective fact, and furthermore that ethical knowledge is not inferior to scientific knowledge. In Chapter 4, drawing on Hermann Melville's Billy Budd, McGinn proceeds to examine the nature of the evil character. In Chapter 5, McGinn discusses the notion of the Beautiful Soul, and he sets out his ‘aesthetic theory of virtue’, or the theory that aesthetic properties supervene on ethical attributes. Chapters 6 and 7 consist of close readings of two literary works, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, respectively. In his conclusion, McGinn reiterates his view that moral philosophy is too narrow in its focus. It investigates words and propositions, using what McGinn calls the ‘commandment’ paradigm. McGinn advocates that the study of ethics pursues the ‘parable’ paradigm, as afforded by works of fictional narrative.

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