The enlargement of life. Moral imagination at work
The enlargement of life. Moral imagination at work
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Moral imagination, according to John Kekes, is indispensable to a fulfilling and responsible life. By correcting a parochial view of the possibilities available to us and overcoming mistaken assumptions about our limitations, moral imagination liberates us from self-imposed narrowness. It enlarges life by enabling us to reflect more deeply and widely about how we should live. The material for this reflection, Kekes believes, is supplied by literature. Each of the eleven chapters of the book focuses on a novel, play, or autobiography that exemplifies the protagonist´s reflective self-evaluation. Kekes shows the enduring significance of these protagonists´ successes or failures and how we might apply what they teach to our very different characters and circumstances.
Kekes discusses John Stuart Mill´s Autobiography, the Oedipus tragedies by Sophocles, Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Henry James´s Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl, Montaigne´s Essays, a story by Herodotus, Arthur Koestler´s Arrival and Departure. Throughout, Kekes shows that moral thought must be concrete, not abstract; that good reasons for or against how we live and what choices we make are available but must be particular, not universal; and that the rigid separation of literature, psychology, and moral thought is detrimental to all three.
Part One: The Ideal 1. Reflective Self-Evaluation
1.1 From Autonomy to Reflective Self-Evaluation
1.2 The Problem of Exclusion
1.4 The Problem of Moral Obtuseness
1.5 The Balanced Ideal
1.6 Imagination
2. Moral Imagination
2.1 Characteristics
2.2 Possibilities and Limits
2.3 Reason and the Voluntarist Ideal
2.4 Moral Imagination and the Good
2.5 Overview
Part Two: The Corrective Imagination 3. Understanding Life Backward
3.1 Mill´s Case
3.2 Limitations
3.3 Sincerity
3.4 Promethean Romanticism
3.6 The Need for Balance
4. From Hope and Fear Set Free
4.1 Myth and Reality
4.2 Contingency
4.3 Oedipus´s Achievement
4.4 Coping with Contingency
5. All Passion Spent
5.1 Responsibility and Fulfillment
5.2 Living Responsibly
5.3 Opting for Responsibility
5.4 Going Deeper
5.5 Shortchanged by Morality
5.6 Overview
Part Three: From Exploratory to Disciplined Imagination
6. Registers of Consciousness
6.1 The Approach
6.2 The General Imbroglio
6.3 The Failure and its Sources
6.4 Aesthetic Romanticism and Its Snares
6.5 Exploratory Imagination and Aesthetic Romanticism
7. This Process of Vision
7.1 Halfway to Fulfillment 7.2 Growing in Appreciation of Life
7.3 Seeing Things as They Are
7.4 Integrated Lives
7.5 An Honorable Failure
8. An Integral Part of Life
8.1 Self-Transformation
8.2 A Book Consubstantial with Its Author
8.3 Innocence and Reflection
8.4 Growing Inward
8.5 Living Appropriately
8.6 Overview
Part Four: The Disciplined Imagination
9. Toward a Purified Mind
9.1 Purity
9.2 Two Kinds of Purity
9.3 Transcendental Romanticism
9.4 Reflective Purity
9.5 Reflective Purity and the Balanced Ideal
10. The Self´s Judgment of the Self
10.1 The Standard View
10.2 Doubts about the Standard View
10.3 The Revised View
10.4 Doubts about the Revised View
10.5 Shame and the Balanced Ideal
11. The Hardest Service
11.1 Reas
11.2 The Uses of Reason
11.3 Reason in Reflective Self-Evaluation
11.4 Wrestling with Truth
11.5 Overview
Kekes discusses John Stuart Mill´s Autobiography, the Oedipus tragedies by Sophocles, Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Henry James´s Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl, Montaigne´s Essays, a story by Herodotus, Arthur Koestler´s Arrival and Departure. Throughout, Kekes shows that moral thought must be concrete, not abstract; that good reasons for or against how we live and what choices we make are available but must be particular, not universal; and that the rigid separation of literature, psychology, and moral thought is detrimental to all three.
Part One: The Ideal 1. Reflective Self-Evaluation
1.1 From Autonomy to Reflective Self-Evaluation
1.2 The Problem of Exclusion
1.4 The Problem of Moral Obtuseness
1.5 The Balanced Ideal
1.6 Imagination
2. Moral Imagination
2.1 Characteristics
2.2 Possibilities and Limits
2.3 Reason and the Voluntarist Ideal
2.4 Moral Imagination and the Good
2.5 Overview
Part Two: The Corrective Imagination 3. Understanding Life Backward
3.1 Mill´s Case
3.2 Limitations
3.3 Sincerity
3.4 Promethean Romanticism
3.6 The Need for Balance
4. From Hope and Fear Set Free
4.1 Myth and Reality
4.2 Contingency
4.3 Oedipus´s Achievement
4.4 Coping with Contingency
5. All Passion Spent
5.1 Responsibility and Fulfillment
5.2 Living Responsibly
5.3 Opting for Responsibility
5.4 Going Deeper
5.5 Shortchanged by Morality
5.6 Overview
Part Three: From Exploratory to Disciplined Imagination
6. Registers of Consciousness
6.1 The Approach
6.2 The General Imbroglio
6.3 The Failure and its Sources
6.4 Aesthetic Romanticism and Its Snares
6.5 Exploratory Imagination and Aesthetic Romanticism
7. This Process of Vision
7.1 Halfway to Fulfillment 7.2 Growing in Appreciation of Life
7.3 Seeing Things as They Are
7.4 Integrated Lives
7.5 An Honorable Failure
8. An Integral Part of Life
8.1 Self-Transformation
8.2 A Book Consubstantial with Its Author
8.3 Innocence and Reflection
8.4 Growing Inward
8.5 Living Appropriately
8.6 Overview
Part Four: The Disciplined Imagination
9. Toward a Purified Mind
9.1 Purity
9.2 Two Kinds of Purity
9.3 Transcendental Romanticism
9.4 Reflective Purity
9.5 Reflective Purity and the Balanced Ideal
10. The Self´s Judgment of the Self
10.1 The Standard View
10.2 Doubts about the Standard View
10.3 The Revised View
10.4 Doubts about the Revised View
10.5 Shame and the Balanced Ideal
11. The Hardest Service
11.1 Reas
11.2 The Uses of Reason
11.3 Reason in Reflective Self-Evaluation
11.4 Wrestling with Truth
11.5 Overview
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