The Ethics of Betrayal: Seduction and Initiation in Dangerous Liaisons
This essay examines the impact of betrayal on the moral imagination in the novel Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It explores the question of how the experience of being betrayed produces self-knowledge, engaging with René Girard’s idea t
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Fictional Worlds and the Moral Imagination
Garry L. Hagberg Editor
Fictional Worlds and the Moral Imagination
Editor Garry L. Hagberg Department of Philosophy Bard College Annandale On Hudson, NY, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-55048-6 ISBN 978-3-030-55049-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55049-3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Dina Belenko Photography / Getty Images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Introduction: Ethical Reflection in a Fictional World
Our ethical sensibilities are in part cultivated by literary experience, and indeed by any narrative drama (e.g. film, television, and theater) that provides an occasion as well as the material for moral reflection. This resource can be too easily forgotten in philosophical contexts of ethical inquiry, owing to a too-ready dichotomy between fiction and fact: ethical reflection is about the real world and our place and our duties within it, and this makes fictional representations of that world seem to be at one remove from the topic at hand. Why not, we might think, deal with the real thing? But therein lies the error: it may be the case, against this simple dichotomy, that moral perception and moral sensitivity are more acutely, sharply, and finely honed in a world that is both less urgent than the real one of moral quandaries and that is more – often much more – linguistically precise and descriptively complete. It may be that the nuanced and detailed descriptions of morally relevant situations and circumstances as presented in literature lead us into a degree of perceptual and descri
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