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“The” Role of Beauty in Moral Discernment
Ki Joo Choi
其他書名
An Appraisal from Rahnerian and Edwardsean Perspectives
出版Boston College, 2006
ISBN05429295039780542929502
URLhttp://books.google.com.hk/books?id=BRHaAQAACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
註釋Are aesthetic experiences morally relevant experiences? This dissertation attempts a response to this question by developing a theological-ethical framework from which to assess two recent works on beauty from disciplines outside theology. The dissertation begins by turning to the art historical and literary examinations of beauty by Wendy Steiner and Elaine Scarry. It then appraises their works within a framework informed by the Jesuit Karl Rahner and Puritan Jonathan Edwards. Steiner's and Scarry's works encourage us to think about the perception of beauty as a kind of perception of self and world. Perceptions of beauty have the capacity to shape our moral vision and thus the capacity to serve as criterion in moral discernment. Perceptions of beauty, therefore, are aesthetic experiences that are not mere ends in themselves. Rahner and Edwards develop this argument further. Though beauty is a less prominent theme in Rahner's thought than in Edwards's, a comparative reading of the two, particularly on grace, love, and sensibility, reveals that both thinkers recommend a theory of beauty in which its perception constitutes a truthful way of attending to reality. A fundamental element of this theory, however, is the notion that it is transcendent beauty that supports the morally formative power of beauty. In perceiving transcendent beauty in the finite beauty of the world, we are drawn to a perception of self and world as they really are. This perception of reality is manifested in the concrete in the form of the affirmative and negative affections, love being the fountain of them all. These affections, in turn, are sustained and deepened by practices that beauty itself incites and supports. A central practice is the engagement of communal deliberation about the beauty perceived and the nature of the good it assumes. This theory of beauty offers an aesthetic perspective to current debates in Christian ethics on the nature of moral knowledge, especially on the viability of moral realism.