Abstract
Ignazio Silone’s novel <em>Bread and Wine</em> explores the complex nature of ethical decision-making in the context of Fascist Italy, a world in which lofty concerns of moral conduct seem the fodder of fools and idealists. Silone uses his central character, firebrand and part-time philosopher Pietro Spina, to plunge his readers into one man’s quest for goodness within the debauchery and despair of war-torn Italy. Pietro’s moral development through the context of his adventures illustrates the challenge of crafting any sound ethical code, and the ease with which one might be lost to cynicism or indifference. The road marks of Pietro’s philosophical evolution are explored through comparisons with Iris Murdoch’s work on moral vision, Elizabeth Anderson’s non-ideal theory, and the three crusaders of Samantha Vice, Ryan Preston-Roedder, and Vanessa Carbonell in their campaign for faith in humanity over cynicism.
Highlights
Both Pietro Spina and Iris Murdoch are connected through their particular and unique sense of moral vision
The novel begins with two men named Nunzio and Concettino visiting Don Benedetto, a wizened and world-weary priest who was once their childhood teacher
Unlike Nunzio, Pietro is afire with a moral vision for Italy beyond the daily misery enforced in a totalitarian state resting on the backs of a peasant population
Summary
Both Pietro Spina and Iris Murdoch are connected through their particular and unique sense of moral vision. Like Pietro, Murdoch believes that morality greatly depends on one’s point of view, in the sense that “will continually influences belief... Like Pietro, Murdoch values the sort of personal reflection, or “thinking with one’s own mind,” which can help overcome the social conventions or personal neuroticisms which may blind us from moral truthseeking.
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