Michael Slote
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195391442
- eISBN:
- 9780199866250
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195391442.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
There has been a great deal of interest in moral sentimentalism in recent years, but most of that interest has been exclusively either in metaethical questions about the meaning of moral terms or in ...
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There has been a great deal of interest in moral sentimentalism in recent years, but most of that interest has been exclusively either in metaethical questions about the meaning of moral terms or in normative issues about benevolence, caring, and compassion and their place in the moral life. This book seeks to deal with both sorts of issues and to do so primarily in terms of the notion of empathy. Hume tried to do something like this more than two centuries ago, though he didn't have the word empathy and used the term sympathy instead. But Hume misconstrued the phenomenology of moral approval and disapproval, and the nascent theories of moral meaning he grounded in approval and disapproval allow for (much) less objectivity than moral judgments seem to possess. The present book uses a semi‐Kripkean reference‐fixing view of terms like right and wrong to show how moral claims can be objectively valid a priori and yet at the same time action‐guiding and motivating — something that Kantian ethics seeks to provide, but sentimentalism turns out to be more capable of giving us. In addition to dealing with semantic issues, this book shows how sentimentalist forms of moral education and moral learning are possible; and in its later chapters, it also focuses on normative issues of public morality: discussing respect, autonomy, justice, and objectivity itself in strictly sentimentalist care‐ethical terms and demonstrating that such an approach can be thoroughly feminist in its implications and goals. Rationalism now dominates the scene in moral philosophy, but there are signs of change, and this book works to encourage those possibilities.Less
There has been a great deal of interest in moral sentimentalism in recent years, but most of that interest has been exclusively either in metaethical questions about the meaning of moral terms or in normative issues about benevolence, caring, and compassion and their place in the moral life. This book seeks to deal with both sorts of issues and to do so primarily in terms of the notion of empathy. Hume tried to do something like this more than two centuries ago, though he didn't have the word empathy and used the term sympathy instead. But Hume misconstrued the phenomenology of moral approval and disapproval, and the nascent theories of moral meaning he grounded in approval and disapproval allow for (much) less objectivity than moral judgments seem to possess. The present book uses a semi‐Kripkean reference‐fixing view of terms like right and wrong to show how moral claims can be objectively valid a priori and yet at the same time action‐guiding and motivating — something that Kantian ethics seeks to provide, but sentimentalism turns out to be more capable of giving us. In addition to dealing with semantic issues, this book shows how sentimentalist forms of moral education and moral learning are possible; and in its later chapters, it also focuses on normative issues of public morality: discussing respect, autonomy, justice, and objectivity itself in strictly sentimentalist care‐ethical terms and demonstrating that such an approach can be thoroughly feminist in its implications and goals. Rationalism now dominates the scene in moral philosophy, but there are signs of change, and this book works to encourage those possibilities.
Shaun Nichols
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195169348
- eISBN:
- 9780199835041
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195169344.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This volume develops a new account of the nature of moral judgment. Evidence from developmental psychology and psychopathologies suggests that emotions play a crucial role in normal moral judgment. ...
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This volume develops a new account of the nature of moral judgment. Evidence from developmental psychology and psychopathologies suggests that emotions play a crucial role in normal moral judgment. This indicates that philosophical accounts of moral judgment that eschew the emotions are mistaken. However, the volume also argues that prevailing philosophical accounts that embrace a role for the emotions are also mistaken. The empirical work points to a quite different account of moral judgment than philosophers have considered, an account in which normative rules and emotions make independent contributions to moral judgment. Further, the volume argues that the emotions play an important role in the normative rules that get fixed in the culture. The history of norms indicates that norms that resonate with our emotions are more likely to survive.Less
This volume develops a new account of the nature of moral judgment. Evidence from developmental psychology and psychopathologies suggests that emotions play a crucial role in normal moral judgment. This indicates that philosophical accounts of moral judgment that eschew the emotions are mistaken. However, the volume also argues that prevailing philosophical accounts that embrace a role for the emotions are also mistaken. The empirical work points to a quite different account of moral judgment than philosophers have considered, an account in which normative rules and emotions make independent contributions to moral judgment. Further, the volume argues that the emotions play an important role in the normative rules that get fixed in the culture. The history of norms indicates that norms that resonate with our emotions are more likely to survive.
John Mullan
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122524
- eISBN:
- 9780191671449
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122524.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
With the rise of the novel in the mid-18th century came the rise of sentimentalism. While the fondness for sentiment embarrassed later literary critics, it originally legitimized a morally suspect ...
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With the rise of the novel in the mid-18th century came the rise of sentimentalism. While the fondness for sentiment embarrassed later literary critics, it originally legitimized a morally suspect phenomenon: the novel. This book describes that legitimation, yet it looks beyond the narrowly literary to the lives and expressed philosophies of some of the major writers of the age, showing the language of feeling to be a resource of philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, as much as novelists like Samuel Richardson and Laurence Sterne.Less
With the rise of the novel in the mid-18th century came the rise of sentimentalism. While the fondness for sentiment embarrassed later literary critics, it originally legitimized a morally suspect phenomenon: the novel. This book describes that legitimation, yet it looks beyond the narrowly literary to the lives and expressed philosophies of some of the major writers of the age, showing the language of feeling to be a resource of philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, as much as novelists like Samuel Richardson and Laurence Sterne.
Michael Slote
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195138375
- eISBN:
- 9780199833696
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195138376.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Since the revival of virtue ethics, most work in virtue ethics has been Aristotelian in inspiration. This book draws, however, from the virtue‐ethical tradition of British moral sentimentalism a la ...
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Since the revival of virtue ethics, most work in virtue ethics has been Aristotelian in inspiration. This book draws, however, from the virtue‐ethical tradition of British moral sentimentalism a la Hume and Hutcheson, and is also influenced by the recently articulated ”ethics of caring”. It defends an agent‐based virtue ethics that treats the moral quality of motivation as the basis for all other ethical evaluations, and the emphasis is on caring, love, and benevolence rather than the sorts of considerations that Aristotle mainly focuses on.Less
Since the revival of virtue ethics, most work in virtue ethics has been Aristotelian in inspiration. This book draws, however, from the virtue‐ethical tradition of British moral sentimentalism a la Hume and Hutcheson, and is also influenced by the recently articulated ”ethics of caring”. It defends an agent‐based virtue ethics that treats the moral quality of motivation as the basis for all other ethical evaluations, and the emphasis is on caring, love, and benevolence rather than the sorts of considerations that Aristotle mainly focuses on.
Keith Gandal
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195338911
- eISBN:
- 9780199867127
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195338911.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory, American, 20th Century Literature
This chapter discusses methodology and places the book in the context of related scholarship on the subject. In particular, it takes issue with literary scholarship whose approach is based on a ...
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This chapter discusses methodology and places the book in the context of related scholarship on the subject. In particular, it takes issue with literary scholarship whose approach is based on a history of ideas or discourses and thus eschews attention to authors' biographies, or experiences of authors — and thus ultimately ignores historical experiences.(It addresses Walter Michaels' Our America, which is an influential example of such scholarship that addresses modernist novels and their relationship to 1920s nativism.) The chapter also argues with studies of the relationship between modernist style and politics that give attention to stylistics per se, apart from plot and character. It discusses the common plot that unifies the 1920s novels at issue, discusses why critics have missed this plot, and offers an alternative argument about modernist style in the context of modernist plots and characters, as well as the historical context of the mobilization. In so doing, it traces the deconstruction of the sentimental novel of seduction by Progressive Era realist writers and the rise of the modernist, racist promiscuity plot, which the three 1920s novels at issue here share with each other, and with Djuna Barnes' Nightwood and Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust.Less
This chapter discusses methodology and places the book in the context of related scholarship on the subject. In particular, it takes issue with literary scholarship whose approach is based on a history of ideas or discourses and thus eschews attention to authors' biographies, or experiences of authors — and thus ultimately ignores historical experiences.(It addresses Walter Michaels' Our America, which is an influential example of such scholarship that addresses modernist novels and their relationship to 1920s nativism.) The chapter also argues with studies of the relationship between modernist style and politics that give attention to stylistics per se, apart from plot and character. It discusses the common plot that unifies the 1920s novels at issue, discusses why critics have missed this plot, and offers an alternative argument about modernist style in the context of modernist plots and characters, as well as the historical context of the mobilization. In so doing, it traces the deconstruction of the sentimental novel of seduction by Progressive Era realist writers and the rise of the modernist, racist promiscuity plot, which the three 1920s novels at issue here share with each other, and with Djuna Barnes' Nightwood and Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust.
Frederick C. Beiser
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199573011
- eISBN:
- 9780191722202
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573011.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, History of Philosophy
This chapter focuses on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who is considered as the last great thinker in the rationalist tradition of aesthetics. Lessing occupies a unique place in the rationalist tradition. ...
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This chapter focuses on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who is considered as the last great thinker in the rationalist tradition of aesthetics. Lessing occupies a unique place in the rationalist tradition. He was its single thinker to be not only a great aesthetician but also a great writer. No one else in this tradition combined so well critical reflection on the arts with the practice of them. Lessing's work as a dramatist shaped his aesthetic thought, which in turn altered the course of the rationalist tradition. Since he saw that writers need inspiration, Lessing became more sceptical of rules, and more appreciative of genius, than most of his predecessors and contemporaries.Less
This chapter focuses on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who is considered as the last great thinker in the rationalist tradition of aesthetics. Lessing occupies a unique place in the rationalist tradition. He was its single thinker to be not only a great aesthetician but also a great writer. No one else in this tradition combined so well critical reflection on the arts with the practice of them. Lessing's work as a dramatist shaped his aesthetic thought, which in turn altered the course of the rationalist tradition. Since he saw that writers need inspiration, Lessing became more sceptical of rules, and more appreciative of genius, than most of his predecessors and contemporaries.
Thomas Holden
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579945
- eISBN:
- 9780191722776
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579945.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This is the first of two chapters documenting and examining Hume's argument from sentimentalism to moral atheism. The argument appeals to Hume's account of the natural limits of our human passions, ...
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This is the first of two chapters documenting and examining Hume's argument from sentimentalism to moral atheism. The argument appeals to Hume's account of the natural limits of our human passions, along with his sentimentalist metaphysics of morals, in order to conclude that the deity is beyond the projected, response-dependent world of moral properties. The chapter focuses on the first stage of the argument, Hume's claim that the deity is not the ‘natural object’ of any of our passions, including love, hate, gratitude, envy, and the rest. In Hume's view, none of our passions — none of our affective attitudes, none of our intentional feelings, emotions, or sentiments — can be directed toward this sort of transcendental being.Less
This is the first of two chapters documenting and examining Hume's argument from sentimentalism to moral atheism. The argument appeals to Hume's account of the natural limits of our human passions, along with his sentimentalist metaphysics of morals, in order to conclude that the deity is beyond the projected, response-dependent world of moral properties. The chapter focuses on the first stage of the argument, Hume's claim that the deity is not the ‘natural object’ of any of our passions, including love, hate, gratitude, envy, and the rest. In Hume's view, none of our passions — none of our affective attitudes, none of our intentional feelings, emotions, or sentiments — can be directed toward this sort of transcendental being.
Thomas Holden
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579945
- eISBN:
- 9780191722776
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579945.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This is the second of two chapters examining Hume's argument from sentimentalism to moral atheism. According to the argument, human passions, including our feelings of moral approval and disapproval, ...
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This is the second of two chapters examining Hume's argument from sentimentalism to moral atheism. According to the argument, human passions, including our feelings of moral approval and disapproval, range only so far as the outer frontier of sense and imagination. Given Hume's sentimentalist metaphysics of morals, it follows that the projected properties of virtue and vice are confined to the immanent world, and cannot characterize any transcendental order beyond this permanent horizon: the deity cannot have any moral attributes. It is argued that Hume is committed to this argument, and that he is aware that he is so committed. The chapter also examines possible objections to the argument, and concludes that it is defensible on Hume's own terms.Less
This is the second of two chapters examining Hume's argument from sentimentalism to moral atheism. According to the argument, human passions, including our feelings of moral approval and disapproval, range only so far as the outer frontier of sense and imagination. Given Hume's sentimentalist metaphysics of morals, it follows that the projected properties of virtue and vice are confined to the immanent world, and cannot characterize any transcendental order beyond this permanent horizon: the deity cannot have any moral attributes. It is argued that Hume is committed to this argument, and that he is aware that he is so committed. The chapter also examines possible objections to the argument, and concludes that it is defensible on Hume's own terms.
John Skorupski
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199587636
- eISBN:
- 9780191595394
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587636.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This book is about normativity and reasons. It works out the consequences of a currently much discussed account of normativity, according to which all normative propositions are reducible to ...
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This book is about normativity and reasons. It works out the consequences of a currently much discussed account of normativity, according to which all normative propositions are reducible to propositions about reasons, so that the normative domain is the domain of reasons. Part I sets out the foundations of this analysis, basing it on three primitive reason relations. Part II applies the analysis to epistemic reasons, hence to aprioricity, modality and probability, Part III to evaluative and practical reasons, hence value and morality. Part III also discusses the structure of practical reason, arguing that practical reasons have three normative sources, considers the nature of moral judgement, and discusses the relationship between moral judgement and practical reasons. Finally Part IV moves to the metatheory of reason relations, arguing for an irrealist form of cognitivism. It is shown how this metaphysics of reason grounds a new form of Critical philosophy. Freedom and knowledge are possible only if we can have a priori knowledge of reason relations, and such knowledge is only possible because it is grounded in pure spontaneity. Skorupski relates his argument to the insights of two traditions in the history of philosophy: the Critical or Kantian tradition, and the tradition of moral sentimentalism.Less
This book is about normativity and reasons. It works out the consequences of a currently much discussed account of normativity, according to which all normative propositions are reducible to propositions about reasons, so that the normative domain is the domain of reasons. Part I sets out the foundations of this analysis, basing it on three primitive reason relations. Part II applies the analysis to epistemic reasons, hence to aprioricity, modality and probability, Part III to evaluative and practical reasons, hence value and morality. Part III also discusses the structure of practical reason, arguing that practical reasons have three normative sources, considers the nature of moral judgement, and discusses the relationship between moral judgement and practical reasons. Finally Part IV moves to the metatheory of reason relations, arguing for an irrealist form of cognitivism. It is shown how this metaphysics of reason grounds a new form of Critical philosophy. Freedom and knowledge are possible only if we can have a priori knowledge of reason relations, and such knowledge is only possible because it is grounded in pure spontaneity. Skorupski relates his argument to the insights of two traditions in the history of philosophy: the Critical or Kantian tradition, and the tradition of moral sentimentalism.
Nigel Leask
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199572618
- eISBN:
- 9780191722974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572618.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 18th-century Literature
This chapter argues that Burns's poetic self-fashioning was a successful attempt to achieve sentimental and cultural credit in the face of the practical financial difficulties that he faces as an ...
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This chapter argues that Burns's poetic self-fashioning was a successful attempt to achieve sentimental and cultural credit in the face of the practical financial difficulties that he faces as an Ayrshire farmer. Like others of his class, he was inculcated with the ideology of improvement but found it impossible to make practical headway due to undercapitalization and high rentals. Burns's alternative vocation as a poet is discussed in relation to his Commonplace Book, the Verse Epistles in the Kilmarnock Volume, and his most ambitious poem, ‘The Vision’. The chapter also analyses his relationship to patronage and his creation of a virtual community of upper class Ayrshire patrons, with reference to the social geography and the 18th-century cartography of Ayrshire.Less
This chapter argues that Burns's poetic self-fashioning was a successful attempt to achieve sentimental and cultural credit in the face of the practical financial difficulties that he faces as an Ayrshire farmer. Like others of his class, he was inculcated with the ideology of improvement but found it impossible to make practical headway due to undercapitalization and high rentals. Burns's alternative vocation as a poet is discussed in relation to his Commonplace Book, the Verse Epistles in the Kilmarnock Volume, and his most ambitious poem, ‘The Vision’. The chapter also analyses his relationship to patronage and his creation of a virtual community of upper class Ayrshire patrons, with reference to the social geography and the 18th-century cartography of Ayrshire.
John Skorupski
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199587636
- eISBN:
- 9780191595394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587636.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This book is about normativity and reasons. The Introduction outlines the main themes of the book and introduces the topics to be covered.
This book is about normativity and reasons. The Introduction outlines the main themes of the book and introduces the topics to be covered.
Timothy Schroeder, Adina L. Roskies, and Shaun Nichols
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199582143
- eISBN:
- 9780191594496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582143.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
To understand the nature of moral motivation, it is important first to understand the nature of motivation. This chapter begins with a discussion of motivation itself and then sketches four possible ...
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To understand the nature of moral motivation, it is important first to understand the nature of motivation. This chapter begins with a discussion of motivation itself and then sketches four possible theories of distinctively moral motivation: instrumentalist, cognitivist, sentimentalist, and personalist theories. It then evaluates these theories in light of recent evidence from neuroscience and allied fields.Less
To understand the nature of moral motivation, it is important first to understand the nature of motivation. This chapter begins with a discussion of motivation itself and then sketches four possible theories of distinctively moral motivation: instrumentalist, cognitivist, sentimentalist, and personalist theories. It then evaluates these theories in light of recent evidence from neuroscience and allied fields.
John Skorupski
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199587636
- eISBN:
- 9780191595394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587636.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter begins an account of the normative sources of evaluative‐practical reasoning, and its distinctive concepts. One such source is a principle that can be called the ‘Bridge’ principle, ...
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This chapter begins an account of the normative sources of evaluative‐practical reasoning, and its distinctive concepts. One such source is a principle that can be called the ‘Bridge’ principle, since it is the bridge by which thought crosses from evaluative reasons to practical reasons. The concept of a person's good and the concept of personal ideals both belong within this sentimentalist territory.Less
This chapter begins an account of the normative sources of evaluative‐practical reasoning, and its distinctive concepts. One such source is a principle that can be called the ‘Bridge’ principle, since it is the bridge by which thought crosses from evaluative reasons to practical reasons. The concept of a person's good and the concept of personal ideals both belong within this sentimentalist territory.
John Skorupski
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199587636
- eISBN:
- 9780191595394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587636.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Chapters 13 and 14 argue that sentimentalism can give no account of how impartiality enters into the sources of practical reasons. Impartial principles underlie our notions of good and of rights; ...
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Chapters 13 and 14 argue that sentimentalism can give no account of how impartiality enters into the sources of practical reasons. Impartial principles underlie our notions of good and of rights; their epistemic basis cannot be the affective dispositions, it can only be the disinterested dispositions of the will. Chapter 13 discusses the principle of Good and utilitarianism.Less
Chapters 13 and 14 argue that sentimentalism can give no account of how impartiality enters into the sources of practical reasons. Impartial principles underlie our notions of good and of rights; their epistemic basis cannot be the affective dispositions, it can only be the disinterested dispositions of the will. Chapter 13 discusses the principle of Good and utilitarianism.
John Skorupski
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199587636
- eISBN:
- 9780191595394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587636.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Why do we engage in moral judgement, as well as practical judgements about what to do? Understanding the role of moral judgement requires a deeper understanding of the moral feelings than has been ...
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Why do we engage in moral judgement, as well as practical judgements about what to do? Understanding the role of moral judgement requires a deeper understanding of the moral feelings than has been undertaken so far, so Chapter 15 examines the moral feelings and their relation to moral judgement.Less
Why do we engage in moral judgement, as well as practical judgements about what to do? Understanding the role of moral judgement requires a deeper understanding of the moral feelings than has been undertaken so far, so Chapter 15 examines the moral feelings and their relation to moral judgement.
Andrew Lawson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199828050
- eISBN:
- 9780199933334
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199828050.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This chapter shows how Cooke’s Balzacian realism provides a solid referential ground for her characters, locating them within a household economy in the process of being broken up by the forced ...
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This chapter shows how Cooke’s Balzacian realism provides a solid referential ground for her characters, locating them within a household economy in the process of being broken up by the forced migrations and commercial transactions of the market economy. While the sentimentalism of Harriet Beecher Stowe assumes a bond of sympathy between her characters and her readership, Cooke’s realism highlights the social gulf between her subjects, the women of the rural poor, and her educated, middle-class readers. The chapter traces the downward mobility of Cooke’s father, Henry Wadsworth Terry, and the privations Cooke endured as a result of this loss of social position. Her stories are narrated through an imaginative identification with the marginal and the excluded, constructing a militantly frugal, lower-middle-class aesthetic aimed against upper-middle-class extravagance and pretension.Less
This chapter shows how Cooke’s Balzacian realism provides a solid referential ground for her characters, locating them within a household economy in the process of being broken up by the forced migrations and commercial transactions of the market economy. While the sentimentalism of Harriet Beecher Stowe assumes a bond of sympathy between her characters and her readership, Cooke’s realism highlights the social gulf between her subjects, the women of the rural poor, and her educated, middle-class readers. The chapter traces the downward mobility of Cooke’s father, Henry Wadsworth Terry, and the privations Cooke endured as a result of this loss of social position. Her stories are narrated through an imaginative identification with the marginal and the excluded, constructing a militantly frugal, lower-middle-class aesthetic aimed against upper-middle-class extravagance and pretension.
Simon Blackburn
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199548057
- eISBN:
- 9780191594953
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199548057.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter rebuts recent attacks on sentimentalism by Samuel Kerstein and Christopher Peacocke. Each has supposed that it follows from expressive theories of ethics that if our sentiments were ...
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This chapter rebuts recent attacks on sentimentalism by Samuel Kerstein and Christopher Peacocke. Each has supposed that it follows from expressive theories of ethics that if our sentiments were different so would our obligations be. The chapter refutes this view.Less
This chapter rebuts recent attacks on sentimentalism by Samuel Kerstein and Christopher Peacocke. Each has supposed that it follows from expressive theories of ethics that if our sentiments were different so would our obligations be. The chapter refutes this view.
Edlie L. Wong
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479868001
- eISBN:
- 9781479899043
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479868001.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Chapter 4 engages a range of Chinese literary productions, including Lin Shu’s translation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the boycott novel The Bitter Society, and Chinese American ...
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Chapter 4 engages a range of Chinese literary productions, including Lin Shu’s translation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the boycott novel The Bitter Society, and Chinese American Edith Maude Eaton’s writings on the North American Chinese. It situates these readings in two overlapping contexts: the 1905 Chinese boycott of U.S. goods protesting the extension of Chinese exclusion laws to Hawaii and the Philippines and the infamous immigration case of United States v. Ju Toy, which denied a citizen of Chinese descent access to courts to challenge immigration admission decisions. By reading Chinese immigration case law and U.S. foreign policy with and against the reform-based fictions of writers of Chinese descent in the U.S. and abroad, chapter 4 illuminates how the growth of U.S. immigration administration and the rise of the modern bureaucratic state reshaped the meaning of race, citizenship, and nation after colonial expansion into the Asia Pacific.Less
Chapter 4 engages a range of Chinese literary productions, including Lin Shu’s translation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the boycott novel The Bitter Society, and Chinese American Edith Maude Eaton’s writings on the North American Chinese. It situates these readings in two overlapping contexts: the 1905 Chinese boycott of U.S. goods protesting the extension of Chinese exclusion laws to Hawaii and the Philippines and the infamous immigration case of United States v. Ju Toy, which denied a citizen of Chinese descent access to courts to challenge immigration admission decisions. By reading Chinese immigration case law and U.S. foreign policy with and against the reform-based fictions of writers of Chinese descent in the U.S. and abroad, chapter 4 illuminates how the growth of U.S. immigration administration and the rise of the modern bureaucratic state reshaped the meaning of race, citizenship, and nation after colonial expansion into the Asia Pacific.
Michael Slote
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195391442
- eISBN:
- 9780199866250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195391442.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter goes on to discuss justice. It shows how an ethics of care based on our understanding of how empathy operates can deal plausibly with issues of basic rights and liberties and issues of ...
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This chapter goes on to discuss justice. It shows how an ethics of care based on our understanding of how empathy operates can deal plausibly with issues of basic rights and liberties and issues of economic distribution (both within society and internationally). Such sentimentalism founds its ideas about justice on a different basis from that which any form of rationalism would appeal to, but on such a differing and sentimentalist basis, it can in fact deal with the entire range of issues that any systematic approach to social/moral issues will want to discuss.Less
This chapter goes on to discuss justice. It shows how an ethics of care based on our understanding of how empathy operates can deal plausibly with issues of basic rights and liberties and issues of economic distribution (both within society and internationally). Such sentimentalism founds its ideas about justice on a different basis from that which any form of rationalism would appeal to, but on such a differing and sentimentalist basis, it can in fact deal with the entire range of issues that any systematic approach to social/moral issues will want to discuss.
Michael Slote
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195391442
- eISBN:
- 9780199866250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195391442.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter focuses on the notion/phenomenon of empathy. It clarifies what we nowadays mean when we talk about empathy, but it also explains how the recent literature of psychology bears on moral ...
More
This chapter focuses on the notion/phenomenon of empathy. It clarifies what we nowadays mean when we talk about empathy, but it also explains how the recent literature of psychology bears on moral sentimentalism. In particular, it shows how that literature supports the conclusion that empathy plays a crucial role in developing and sustaining genuinely altruistic, caring motivation. This chapter also points out the ways in which the moral distinctions we commonsensically make generally correspond to normal differences in empathic responsiveness. This moves us in the direction of the central idea that empathy plays a role in our understanding, and in the semantics, of moral claims.Less
This chapter focuses on the notion/phenomenon of empathy. It clarifies what we nowadays mean when we talk about empathy, but it also explains how the recent literature of psychology bears on moral sentimentalism. In particular, it shows how that literature supports the conclusion that empathy plays a crucial role in developing and sustaining genuinely altruistic, caring motivation. This chapter also points out the ways in which the moral distinctions we commonsensically make generally correspond to normal differences in empathic responsiveness. This moves us in the direction of the central idea that empathy plays a role in our understanding, and in the semantics, of moral claims.
