Exemplars and expertise: what we cannot learn from saints and heroes
Archer,Alfred Dennis,Matthew
Archer,Alfred
Dennis,Matthew
Abstract
According to a popular line of thought, moral exemplars have a key role to play in moral development and moral education and by paying attention to moral exemplars we can learn about what morality requires of us. However, when we pay attention to what many moral exemplars say about their actions, it seems that our moral obligations are much more demanding than we typically think they are. Some philosophers have argued that this exemplar testimony gives us reason to accept a radically demanding view of morality. We argue against this view by appealing to similar testimony from aesthetic exemplars. If we accept that the testimony of moral exemplars gives us reason to accept a radically demanding view of morality, then we should accept that the testimony of aesthetic exemplars supports a radically demanding view of aesthetic normativity. We argue that we should reject both arguments for radically demanding views, and instead see the testimony of exemplars as having something important to tell us about the nature of ideals. What we learn about morality and aesthetics from attending to the lives of moral exemplars is that those who embody an ideal are subject to obligations that others are not.
Description
Funding Information: Alfred Archer is the primary author of this paper and was responsible for the initial planning and taking the lead with the writing and revising of the paper. Matthew Dennis assisted with the writing and revising of the paper. Thanks to audiences at the 2019 Aesthetic Normativity Workshop at the University of Padova and the 2021 meeting for the American Society of Aesthetics in Montreal. Special thanks to André Grahle for helpful suggestions about the nature of ideals and to Simone Grigoletto and two anonymous referees for detailed comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Alfred Archer’s work on this paper was supported by the John Templeton Foundation under Grant 61514 (‘Exemplar Interventions to Develop Character’). We are also grateful to Wake Forest University for support of this research. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not reflect the position of the John Templeton Foundation. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Date
2023-04
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Research Projects
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Keywords
Aesthetic normativity, Moral demandingness, Moral exemplars, Obligation, Supererogation
Citation
Archer, A & Dennis, M 2023, 'Exemplars and expertise : what we cannot learn from saints and heroes', Inquiry, pp. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2023.2196681
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess