Ethics, evil, and fiction

Ethics, Evil, and Fiction brings together moral philosophy and literary analysis in a way that offers original new insights for both. Its central aim is to enrich the domain of moral reflection, by showing the value of literary texts as sources of moral illumination. Colin McGinn starts by setting out an uncompromisingly realist ethical theory, arguing that morality is an area of objective truth and genuine knowledge. He goes on to address such subjects as the nature of goodness, evil character, and the meaning of monstrosity, in the context of an aesthetic theory of virtue, which maintains that goodness of character is the same thing as beauty of soul. Works discussed include Billy Budd, Lolita, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Frankenstein; and McGinn draws upon examples from film and painting as well as literature.

[Part] 1. Introduction: the scope of moral philosophy -- [Part] 2. Goodness -- Moral psychologism -- The naturalistic fallacy? -- Relativism -- Logical priority and the biconditionals -- A tempting error -- Moral intentionality -- Psychologism and moral enquiry -- The essence of goodness -- 'Good' and 'Ought'-- [Part] 3. Knowledge of goodness -- Ethical knowledge and scientific knowledge -- The explanation of belief -- Science and induction -- Ethics and mathematics -- The nature of ethical knowledge -- Truth and coercion -- Morality and folk psychology -- Epistemological queerness -- [Part] 4. The evil character -- Two types of moral psychology -- Clarifying the analysis -- Some applications -- The explanation of evil -- The attraction of pain -- Primitive evil -- The rationality of evil -- The origins and prevention of evil.

[Part] 5. Beauty of Soul -- Aesthetic morality -- Reid on the aesthetics of the soul -- Articulating inner beauty -- On brief encounter -- Nabokov's formula -- Some consequences of the theory -- Virtue and art -- [Part]6. The picture: Dorian Gray -- Art and sin -- Picture and person -- The limits of aestheticism -- The relevance of Dorian Gray -- [Part] 7. …