Can-and Should-Literary Study Develop Moral Character and Advance Social Justice? Answers from Cognitive Science
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4375181 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mark Bracher (Kent State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 519-541 |
| Publication date | 2019-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Poetics Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0333-5372 • E-ISSN: 1527-5507 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/03335372-7558122 |
| OpenAlex | W2975357157 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 52 |
Drawing on empirical studies, the article argues that developing moral character and advancing social justice through literary study is both eminently feasible and profoundly ethical, and that claims to the contrary are based on faulty notions of the psychological bases of morality and justice. The article explains how certain literary texts together with certain pedagogical practices can achieve these ends by training students to recognize two key but routinely overlooked facts about other people-their profound sameness and interconnectedness with oneself and their ultimate blamelessness for negative life outcomes, behaviors, and character traits-as well as a key fact about themselves: that they are inherently compassionate, as manifested by their compassionate impulses and the gratification they get from helping others in need
Aesthetics · Cognition · Economic Justice · Epistemology · Gratification · Moral character · Morality · Political science · Sociology · Humor Studies and Applications · Law · Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies · Media Influence and Health · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Storytelling and the Sciences of Mind
Uses of Literature
An Attributional Analysis of Reactions to Poverty
The Role of Social Information Processing and Cognitive Schema in the Acquisition and Maintenance of Habitual Aggressive Behavior
The norm of self-interest.
A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts
Social Cognition and Children's Aggressive Behavior
Narrative and the Cultural Psychology of Identity
The Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience
Empathy, Attitudes, and Action
Narrative Identity
Social learning theory
Criticism and Social Change
Identity Theory
On the Origin of Stories
Social Motivation, Justice, and the Moral Emotions
Radical Pedagogy
Superordinate Categorization as a Moderator of Mutual Infrahumanization
The Moral Self
Examining the principles in principled conservatism
The Philosophy of Literary Form
Causal attribution across cultures
Construing action abstractly and blurring social distinctions
Prejudice and Stereotype Maintenance Processes
Toward a theory and measure of the nature of nonprejudice
The self-importance of moral identity
Structural properties of stereotypic knowledge and their influences on the construal of social situations
The chameleon effect
Reinterpreting the empathy–altruism relationship
He never willed to have the will he has
Values as the Core of Personal Identity
A feeling for fiction
Psychological Processes Underlying Literary Impact
The Political Unconscious
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2023 (3) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |