Aesthetic Experience and Moral Vision in Plato, Kant, and Murdoch Looking Good/Being Good

This book addresses how Plato, Kant, and Iris Murdoch (each in different ways) view the connection aesthetic experience has to morality. While offering an examination of Iris Murdoch’s philosophy, it analyses deeply the suggestive links (as well as essential distinctions) between Plato’s and Kant’s philosophies. Meredith Trexler Drees considers not only Iris Murdoch’s concept of unselfing, but also its relationship with Kant’s view of Achtung and Plato’s view of Eros. In addition, Trexler Drees suggests an extended, and partially amended, version of Murdoch’s view, arguing that it is more compatible with a religious way of life than Murdoch herself realized. This leads to an expansion of the overall argument to include Kant’s affirmation of religion as an area of life that can be improved through Plato’s and Murdoch’s vision of how being good and being beautiful can be part of the same life-task.

Chapter 1: Introduction 

Chapter 2: Experiences Of Beauty Via Art And Erotic Experiences Of Beautiful People: The Connection Between Aesthetics And Ethics In Plato

Chapter 3: Beauty, Art, And Sublimity, And The Symbolic Relationship Between Aesthetic Judgment And Moral Judgment In Kant

Chapter 4: Aesthetic Experience, Moral Vision, And ‘Unselfing’ In Iris Murdoch

Chapter 5: A Closer Look At The Connection Between Plato, Kant And Murdoch

Chapter 7: Morally Troubling Art 

Chapter 8: Moving Beyond Murdoch: Kantian Religion As Aesthetic And Moral Empowerment

Bibliography

Meredith Trexler Drees is the Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy and the Director of Experiential Learning at Kansas Wesleyan University, USA.