Stinchcombe, Zak (2022) What makes bad books good? The relationship between ethical and aesthetic value. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The debate surrounding the relationship between ethical and aesthetic value is myopic and Procrustean. An alternative perspective is required to account for its richness. In this thesis, I first survey existing strategies for dealing of the relationship. I then show where I part ways with them. In contrast to autonomism, I believe a relationship does exist and, in contrast to moralism, I do not think ethical value covaries neatly with aesthetic value. Moreover, though I am sympathetic to immoralism, I argue that its approach is incomplete in important respects.

All these strategies try to answer the ‘thin’ question of how literary and moral value are related.
Immoralism provides the best answer – but it leaves the ‘thick’ question of how literary and ethical value might be related untouched.

I therefore pursue strategies for dealing of the thicker relationship. To this end, I scrutinise Nussbaum’s work on moral vision and how certain literary works are themselves works of moral philosophy. I then survey Lamarque and Olsen’s conception of literature as a nonoverlapping practice governed by a self-contained set of conventions and concepts. I argue that the focus of some works of literature draws attention to and challenges these conventions and concepts. I make a distinction between the ‘world of the work’ and the ‘work in the world’ to make this point clear. This distinction is crucial and illuminating for my answer to the thicker question.

These pieces in place, I closely analyse three works – Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Dante’s The Divine Comedy and Thomas Mann’s Joseph and his Brothers – in accordance with the newly conceived relationship. The question ‘What makes bad books good?’ invites us to overcome our myopia with regards to how art and ethics interrelate. In truth, myriad, dynamic relationships hold between art and ethics; and truly great works can capture this.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Aestheticism (Literature), Aesthetics -- Philosophical aspects, Values, Ethics
Official Date:	January 2022
Dates:	Date Event January 2022 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Philosophy
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	John, Eileen
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	183 pages
Language:	eng

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