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Single Idea 20426

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality ]

Full Idea

To the pure moralist, accepting nothing but ethical values, to be justified, the life of the imagination must be shown not only not to hinder but actually to forward right action, otherwise it is not only useless but, by absorbing energies, harmful.

Gist of Idea

For pure moralists art must promote right action, and not just be harmless

Source

Roger Fry (An Essay in Aesthetics [1909], p.26)

Book Ref

Fry,Roger: 'Vision and Design' [Penguin 1937], p.26

A Reaction

I think this is the sort of attitude you find in Samuel Johnson. Puritans even reject light music, which seems pleasantly harmless to the rest of us. 'Absorbing energies' doesn't sound much of an objection, and may not be the actual objection.

The 39 ideas with the same theme [relationship between moral and aesthetic values]:

468 Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.]
297 What is fine is the parent of goodness [Plato]
8239 If the King likes music then there is hope for the state [Mengzi (Mencius)]
635 The good is found in actions, but beauty can exist without movement [Aristotle]
2846 Music can mould the character to be virtuous (just as gymnastics trains the body) [Aristotle]
3044 Stoics say that beauty and goodness are equivalent and linked [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
1907 Stoics use 'kalon' (beautiful) as a synonym for 'agathon' (good) [Bury on Stoic school]
22022 Beauty motivates morality, by harmonising feeling and reason [Schiller, by Pinkard]
22710 People estimate art according to their moral values [Tolstoy]
8125 The upper classes put beauty first, and thus freed themselves from morality [Tolstoy]
8064 We separate the concept of beauty from goodness, unlike the ancients [Tolstoy]
7274 Books are only well or badly written, not moral or immoral [Wilde]
7275 Having ethical sympathies is a bad mannerism of style in an artist [Wilde]
20426 For pure moralists art must promote right action, and not just be harmless [Fry]
22691 Only artistic qualities matter in art, because they also have the highest moral value [Bell,C]
23898 Those who say immorality is not an aesthetic criterion must show that all criteria are aesthetic [Weil]
22347 Appreciating beauty in art or nature opens up the good life, by restricting selfishness [Murdoch]
22712 Art and morals are essentially the same, and are both identical with love [Murdoch]
22714 Because art is love, it improves us morally [Murdoch]
22688 The Aristotelian idea that choices can be perceived needs literary texts to expound it [Nussbaum]
20456 Interesting art is always organised around ethical demands [Critchley]
22696 'Autonomism' says the morality is irrelevant to the aesthetics [Jacobson,D]
22697 Moral defects of art can be among its aesthetic virtues [Jacobson,D]
22702 Audiences can be too moral [Jacobson,D]
22700 Immoral art encourages immoral emotions [Jacobson,D]
22699 Moderate moralism says moral qualities can sometimes also be aesthetic qualities [Jacobson,D]
22698 We can judge art ethically, or rate its ethical influence, or assess its quality via its ethics [Jacobson,D]
22684 Good ethics counts towards aesthetic merit, and bad ethics counts against it [Gaut]
22685 Good art does not necessarily improve people (any more than good advice does) [Gaut]
22689 If we don't respond ethically in the way a work prescribes, that is an aesthetic failure [Gaut]
22690 'Moralism' says all aesthetic merits are moral merits [Gaut]
22692 A work can be morally and artistically excellent, despite rejecting moral truth [John,E]
22693 The works we value most are in sympathy with our own moral views [John,E]
22694 We should understand what is morally important in a story, without having to endorse it [John,E]
22695 We value morality in art because that is what we care about - but it is a contingent fact [John,E]
22705 If the depiction of evil is glorified, that is an artistic flaw [Davies,S]
22707 It is an artistic defect if excessive moral outrage distorts the story, and narrows our sympathies [Davies,S]
22704 Immorality may or may not be an artistic defect [Davies,S]
22706 A work which seeks approval for immorality, but alienates the audience, is a failure [Davies,S]