Full Idea
Ethicism does not entail the causal thesis that good art ethically improves people, …any more than it follows that earnest ethical advice improves people.
Gist of Idea
Good art does not necessarily improve people (any more than good advice does)
Source
Berys Gaut (The Ethical Criticism of Art [1998], 'Ethicism')
Book Reference
'Aesthetics and the Phil of Art (Analytic trad)', ed/tr. Lamarque,P/Olsen,SH [Blackwell 2004], p.284
A Reaction
How successful were sermons, in the great days of Christianity? It seems hard to disagree with Gaut's point.
Related Idea
Idea 22684 Good ethics counts towards aesthetic merit, and bad ethics counts against it [Gaut]