ERIC Number: EJ1465355
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 9
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2374-8257
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Learning Morality through Literary Mimesis
Lisbet Svanøe
Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis, v40 n2 p84-92 2020
In Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Practical Reason" ["Kritik der praktischen Vernunft"] (hereafter: KpV), Kant in the second book's second part "Methodology of Pure Practical Reason" ["Methodenlehre der reinen praktischen Vernunft"] wonders why "the educators of the youth" have not "made use of this propensity of reason to enter with pleasure upon the most subtle examination of the practical questions that are thrown up." In other words, Kant wonders why teachers do not use exemplary historical "narratives" in order to help students to form their latent practical reason--and hence morality--as this seems to be a self-evident possibility. This essay works with the hypothesis that the narrative to some extent functions as ethical habituation understood in an Aristotelian way, i.e. a habituation that through imitation takes place over time. Because the narrative is timely on an existential level, i.e., that it compresses time in the quasi-practical life represented by the narrative, a whole life from cradle to grave or extensive periods of life can be lived through in a relatively short period of physical time. If the reader is able to put her- or himself in the position of the narrative's characters the experiences of the protagonists will to some extend transfer to the percipient. In order to examine the hypothesis, this article will firstly unfold the threefold mimesis developed by Paul Ricoeur in the first volume of his "Time and Narrative" ["Temps et récit"] 3 (hereafter: TN) in order to investigate Kant's intuition of the importance of the narrative to moral education. It seems plausible that Ricoeur's threefold mimesis and his understanding of the narrative can function as a mediator between the past and the future and as a changing and formational element to human action. However, secondly, this article will critically inquire into the formational character of the threefold mimesis by discussing works of Peter Kemp, Martha Nussbaum and others. The mimetic process and Ricoeur's rooting in the Aristotelian concept of mimesis seems to be problematic as the actions of a narrative's protagonists can be morally tainted and therefore might not be suited for imitation in the pursuit of moral education. Furthermore, it seems that an ontological imperative is presupposed in the theory.
Descriptors: Ethics, Habituation, Moral Values, Educational Philosophy, Moral Development, Imitation, Teaching Methods, Logical Thinking, Thinking Skills, Student Development, Reader Text Relationship, Ethical Instruction
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
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Language: English
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