An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art

defect.”^34 For example, a play that presents the historical Hitler as someone

to pity and with whom to sympathize will be“an aesthetic failure.”^35 “A

novel that calls upon audiences to deliver the moral sentiment of admiration

for a sadistic colonizer who cruelly and relentlessly tortures every Indian he

encounters”will fail artistically, in that the emotional response it prescribes

will, rightly, not be felt.^36 In such cases the moral significance and the

aesthetic value of the work cannot be separated. They are artistically flawed

becauseof their moral import.

Moralism and the clarification of thought and feeling

Given the difficulties that trouble both extreme and moderate autono-

mism, given the desire to connect art with life, and given the frequent

efforts of artists themselves to makemoral and political statements, Car-

roll adopts a position he callsmoderate moralism.Somebutnotallworksof

art have moral value. (Works of pure instrumental music and pure visual

design, according to Carroll, do not.^37 ) Sometimes but not always moral

defectsandvirtuesimplyartisticdefectsandvirtues.^38 Here Carroll dis-

tinguishes his position from what he callsethicism,theviewthatmoral

defects and virtues in a workalwaysimply artistic defects and virtues in it.

Matthew Kieran and Berys Gaut each advocate this stronger view. Kieran

argues that

Art can widen, develop, and deepen our imaginative understandings of

ourselves, others, and our world. Good artworks will do so for most people,

across time and cultures, far better than mediocre ones. Great artworks are

those which may promote the imaginative understanding of many people,

across many times and cultures.^39

Gaut claims that“if a work manifests ethically reprehensible attitudes, it

is to that extent aesthetically defective, and if a work manifests ethically

(^34) Carroll,“Morality and Aesthetics,”p. 281B, 282A.
(^35) Ibid., p. 282A.
(^36) Carroll,“Art and Ethical Criticism,”p. 377.
(^37) Carroll,“Morality and Aesthetics,”p. 280A.
(^38) Carroll,“Art and Ethical Criticism,”p. 377.
(^39) Matthew Kieran,“Art, Imagination, and the Cultivation of Morals,”Journal of Aesthetics
and Art Criticism54, 4 (fall 1996), pp. 337–51 at p. 348B.
234 An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art