The Lure of Evil

Exploring Moral Formation on the Dark Side of Literature and the Arts

Bibliographic Data

ID11952142
AuthorsDavid Carr (0000-0003-0671-0719, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author), Richard A Davis (0000-0002-9062-5754, University of Glasgow), Robert Davis (0000-0002-9494-1463)
Year2007
Volume41
Issue1
Pages95-112
Publication date2007-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Philosophy of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-8249 • E-ISSN: 1467-9752
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9752.2007.00541.x
OpenAlexW2135850708
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited18

The moral potential of works of art, for good or ill, has been recognised from philosophical antiquity: on the assumption that the moral effects of art are invariably negative, Plato advised the exclusion of artists from any rationally ordered state. Arguably, however, the problem of the moral status of art has become yet more acute in contexts of post-Romantic and other modern artistic exploration of moral ambiguity, and even of some apparent contemporary celebration of the immoral and amoral. Indeed, some tension between commitment to liberal-democratic openness and freedom, on the one hand, and fear about the potential literary and artistic corruption of the young, on the other, is evident in latter-day moralistic trends in children's literature. However, in the light of some basic exploration of conceptual relationships between the artistic, the aesthetic and the moral, this paper argues that such moralising trends in particular and arguments for artistic censorship in general are mostly wrongheaded and unsustainable

Art · Art history · Carr · Media studies · Moral philosophy · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art · History · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism

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