Aesthetics and Ethics in Anna Jameson’s 'Characteristics of Women'
In this paper I contribute to the recovery of women in the history of philosophy by giving the first modern-day philosophical account of the ideas on aesthetics and ethics of Anna Jameson (1794–1860). Although Jameson was massive in her time, she wrote in a place and period, nineteenth-century Brita...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Aperio
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Modern Philosophy |
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| Online Access: | https://jmphil.org/articles/242 |
| _version_ | 1827965745721507840 |
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| author | Alison Stone |
| author_facet | Alison Stone |
| author_sort | Alison Stone |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper I contribute to the recovery of women in the history of philosophy by giving the first modern-day philosophical account of the ideas on aesthetics and ethics of Anna Jameson (1794–1860). Although Jameson was massive in her time, she wrote in a place and period, nineteenth-century Britain, and on an area, aesthetics, that the recovery effort has hardly reached yet. Throughout her work Jameson argued that aesthetics and ethics were very closely connected. Here I focus on how she made that connection in her 1832 work 'Characteristics of Women: Moral, Poetical, and Historical'. Looking at Shakespeare’s female characters, Jameson argued that they provide moral examples of various sorts: role models, warnings, or a mixture of the two. The characters only provide these examples because they are rounded, psychologically complete individuals who are therefore in a certain sense real. In addition, because they are complete, the characters are aesthetic wholes, and art-works in turn are aesthetic wholes just when they depict characters as aesthetic wholes. The consequence for Jameson is that art-works can only be aesthetically good – in virtue of being wholes – if they are also morally good – in presenting characters that serve as moral examples. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T17:39:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1c28a2c70f7a4258b595f257e438f6b9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2644-0652 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T17:39:15Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Aperio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Modern Philosophy |
| spelling | doaj.art-1c28a2c70f7a4258b595f257e438f6b92023-04-17T07:10:49ZengAperioJournal of Modern Philosophy2644-06522023-03-015110.32881/jomp.24252Aesthetics and Ethics in Anna Jameson’s 'Characteristics of Women'Alison Stone0Lancaster UniversityIn this paper I contribute to the recovery of women in the history of philosophy by giving the first modern-day philosophical account of the ideas on aesthetics and ethics of Anna Jameson (1794–1860). Although Jameson was massive in her time, she wrote in a place and period, nineteenth-century Britain, and on an area, aesthetics, that the recovery effort has hardly reached yet. Throughout her work Jameson argued that aesthetics and ethics were very closely connected. Here I focus on how she made that connection in her 1832 work 'Characteristics of Women: Moral, Poetical, and Historical'. Looking at Shakespeare’s female characters, Jameson argued that they provide moral examples of various sorts: role models, warnings, or a mixture of the two. The characters only provide these examples because they are rounded, psychologically complete individuals who are therefore in a certain sense real. In addition, because they are complete, the characters are aesthetic wholes, and art-works in turn are aesthetic wholes just when they depict characters as aesthetic wholes. The consequence for Jameson is that art-works can only be aesthetically good – in virtue of being wholes – if they are also morally good – in presenting characters that serve as moral examples.https://jmphil.org/articles/242anna jamesonaestheticsmoral examplesshakespearewomen |
| spellingShingle | Alison Stone Aesthetics and Ethics in Anna Jameson’s 'Characteristics of Women' Journal of Modern Philosophy anna jameson aesthetics moral examples shakespeare women |
| title | Aesthetics and Ethics in Anna Jameson’s 'Characteristics of Women' |
| title_full | Aesthetics and Ethics in Anna Jameson’s 'Characteristics of Women' |
| title_fullStr | Aesthetics and Ethics in Anna Jameson’s 'Characteristics of Women' |
| title_full_unstemmed | Aesthetics and Ethics in Anna Jameson’s 'Characteristics of Women' |
| title_short | Aesthetics and Ethics in Anna Jameson’s 'Characteristics of Women' |
| title_sort | aesthetics and ethics in anna jameson s characteristics of women |
| topic | anna jameson aesthetics moral examples shakespeare women |
| url | https://jmphil.org/articles/242 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alisonstone aestheticsandethicsinannajamesonscharacteristicsofwomen |