The Moral of the Story: Literature and Public Ethics

The contributors to The Moral of the Story, all preeminent political theorists, are unified by their concern with the instructive power of great literature. This thought-provoking combination of essays explores the polyvalent moral and political impact of classic world literatures on public ethics through the study of some of its major figures-including Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, Jane Austen, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Robert Penn Warren, and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0739101498
• ISBN13: 9780739101490
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A Literary Look at Ethics and Public Policy

This work combines the current interest in morals and public ethics with significant insights into the moral themes conveyed by great literature. In the process, this series of essays carries out with seeming ease what is in fact quite a difficult task--illustrating the relationship between various significant literary works, and the moral themes that largely guide and support them. Professor Edmondson's volume makes a persuasive case that literature has implications for morals and public policy, and that good public policy is directly tied to the very sorts of ethical and moral themes exemplified in the works discussed. In the process, this book puts meat on the bare bones of discussions of ethics and public policy, which are so often treated as a series of merely abstract problems. As such, this work provides welcome relief from the abstruse ethical formulae of many academics currently active in the fields of philosophy, ethics, and public policy.