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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Aperio
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Modern Philosophy |
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| Online Access: | https://jmphil.org/article/id/1936/ |
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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. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-bbb4c2c37bf148a79258ca00ee7d9f8e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2644-0652 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Aperio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Modern Philosophy |
| spelling | doaj-art-bbb4c2c37bf148a79258ca00ee7d9f8e2025-01-31T16:08:44ZengAperioJournal of Modern Philosophy2644-06522023-03-015010.25894/jmp.1936Aesthetics and Ethics in Anna Jameson’s Characteristics of WomenAlison Stone0 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.https://jmphil.org/article/id/1936/Anna 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/article/id/1936/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alisonstone aestheticsandethicsinannajamesonscharacteristicsofwomen |