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Moral beauty and education

Paris, Panos (2019) Moral beauty and education. Journal of Moral Education 48 (4), pp. 395-411. ISSN 0305-7240.

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Abstract

This article seeks to rekindle a version of the age-old view that aesthetic education can contribute to the development of virtue. It proceeds as follows. First, it introduces the moral beauty view, whereby the moral virtues are beautiful, and the moral vices ugly, character traits. Second, two ways in which moral beauty and ugliness can manifest themselves are considered: in people and in artworks. Third, it is argued that character education couched partly in aesthetic terms, and coupled with the cultivation of a sensitivity to moral beauty and ugliness, promise a solid and motivationally robust anchor for moral character development. It is suggested that introducing the notions of moral beauty and ugliness in our conceptual repertoire, coupled with the presence of moral beauty in our surroundings, can undergird more traditional pathways to virtue, whilst being congenial to the maintenance of virtue. Before closing, three objections against these suggestions are addressed, and some avenues for exploring the notion of moral beauty vis-à-vis moral motivation and education are proposed.

Metadata

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis, available online at the link above.
Keyword(s) / Subject(s): moral virtue, moral education, beauty, aesthetic education, moral motivation
School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
Research Centres and Institutes: Humanities, Birkbeck Institute for the (BIH)
Depositing User: Panos Paris
Date Deposited: 03 Jun 2019 05:58
Last Modified: 26 Jul 2025 00:42
URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/27703

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