Full Idea
The view that the only aesthetic merit of works are ethical ones is known as 'moralism'.
Gist of Idea
'Moralism' says all aesthetic merits are moral merits
Source
Berys Gaut (The Ethical Criticism of Art [1998], n 1)
Book Reference
'Aesthetics and the Phil of Art (Analytic trad)', ed/tr. Lamarque,P/Olsen,SH [Blackwell 2004], p.292
A Reaction
[He says this view was demolished by R.W.Beardsmore in 1971] Gaut contrasts this with his own carefully modulated 'ethicism'. Moralism predominated in the eighteenth century, but now looks clearly wrong (or naïve).
Related Ideas
Idea 22684 Good ethics counts towards aesthetic merit, and bad ethics counts against it [Gaut]
Idea 22699 Moderate moralism says moral qualities can sometimes also be aesthetic qualities [Jacobson,D]