Moral Beauty Research Articles

Motivational Internalism and Disinterestedness

Abstract According to the most important objection to the existence of moral beauty, true judgements of moral beauty are not possible as moral judgements require being motivated to act in line with the moral judgement made, and judgements of beauty require not being motivated to act in any way. Here, I clarify the argument underlying the objection and demonstrate that it does not show that moral beauty does not exist. I present two responses: namely, that the beauty of moral beauty does not lie in the moral goodness per se (the ‘adjacent properties’ response), and that only a dispositional motivation to act is required for the moral judgements that are typically made as part of judgements of moral beauty, whereas aesthetic judgements only rule out state motivations to act (the ‘equivocation of motivation required’ response). In addressing the objection, I show how moral beauty is consistent with disinterestedness, and so should be accepted more widely; also clarifying where the beauty in moral beauty resides, and how the moral–aesthetic distinction should be drawn.

A beautiful face is good when we're judged by others, a moral character is better.

Moral beauty, reflected in one's actions, and facial beauty both affect how we're judged. Here, we investigated how moral and facial beauty interactively affect social judgments and emotional responses, employing event-related brain potentials. Participants (all female) associated positive, neutral, or negative verbal information with faces scoring high or low on attractiveness and performed ratings of the faces as manipulation checks. In a separate test phase, the faces were presented again, and participants made valenced social judgments of the persons. Results show a dominance of moral beauty in valenced social judgments as well as ERPs related to reflexive and evaluative emotional responses (early posterior negativity, EPN, late positive potential, LPP), whereas facial attractiveness mattered little. In contrast, facial attractiveness affected visual processing (N170). Similarly, relatively shallow impressions of attractiveness and likability that require no knowledge about the person were influenced by both facial attractiveness and social-emotional information. This pattern of dominant effects of social-emotional information regardless of attractiveness shows that when it comes to our emotional responses and social judgments, moral beauty is what matters most, even in the face of physical beauty.

МОДЕЛЬ СОВЕРШЕННОГО ЧЕЛОВЕКА В КОНТЕКСТЕ КЛАССИЧЕСКОГО СУФИЗМА НА ПРИМЕРЕ СУФИЙСКИХ ВЗГЛЯДОВ АВИЦЕНЫ

the author examines the Conception of the perfect man in the philosophy of Ibn Sina, highlighting it as an important aspect in both mystical and philosophical teachings. The model of the ideal man, created by Ibn Sina's representation, is intellectual harmony, moderation and moral beauty, reflecting the high ideals of cognition and consciousness.

The Stoic Conception of Philosophy as an Art of Living and the Pursuit of Moral Beauty

The Stoics argue that philosophy as an art of living (techne) is not only a theoretical and intellectual pursuit of knowing the rational order and harmony (or logos) of nature/physics/God but it is also a practical activity that aims to transform and shape our lives in accordance with this knowledge. In this sense, the Stoics argue that philosophy is not an abstract subject to be considered but rather a practical matter that has a direct influence on our way of living. Based on this main Stoic conception of philosophy, in this paper, I fundamentally take issue with the general claim about the the Stoic moralism entails that philosophy is solely grounded on the purpose of achieving moral virtue, suggesting that all other elements are excluded from its purview. By arguing that Stoic moralism is not contrasted with the conception of moral beauty, I adopt the view that Stoic moralism is not free from the conception of beauty, such that it encapsulates the idea that beauty is within the virtuous. In light of this, I focus on the conception of philosophy and suggest that, for the Stoics, although the ultimate goal of philosophy is to lead a virtuous life that is grounded on our understanding of the rational order and harmony (or logos) of nature, the philosophical life does also correspond to a moral life, which has the aesthetic aspect of embellishing our lives with beauty, harmony, and order.

How Stories in the Media Can Be Meaningful in Children’s Lives

ABSTRACT Most children love stories, but studies examining their potential for growth are rare. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 66 children to understand how stories can be meaningful for them. Before the interview, they watched the Disney • Pixar film Inside Out. The story of this film follows the renowned framework of the Hero’s Journey and has been lauded for its premise concerning emotions and human connectedness. Findings from the in-depth semi-structured duo interviews are the first to reveal that children can be moved by moral beauty in stories. Another novel finding was that the film encouraged children to follow the protagonist on her adventure and in doing so acquired the same insights as her. Given that the Hero’s Journey framework is often applied by writers, it is possible that the idea of acquiring the same insights as the protagonist applies to many stories. The story was also found to be meaningful for children because it sparked their social intelligence and inspired them to never give up. Altogether, these findings indicate that stories can be an accelerated way of gaining life experience and wisdom.

Moral elevation affects the causal attributions about others’ behavior

ABSTRACT Moral elevation refers to the positive emotional response resulting from witnessing acts of virtue or moral beauty. While the evidence demonstrates that experiencing elevation has a positive effect on people’s prosocial behavior, an intriguing question is whether this emotion also affects social-cognitive processes involved in the perception of others’ behavior. The present research aims to study whether this elevation affects the causal attributions people make about the behavior of others. The results of three studies (total N = 267 adults from Spain; 79.03% women) show that a) elevation trait correlates with internal causal attributions about others’ behavior, b) experimental manipulation of elevation affects causal attributions about others’ behavior, and c) experimental manipulation of elevation can reduce correspondence bias (fundamental attributional error). The results are discussed within the framework of the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.

Beauty and tourists’ sustainable behaviour in rural tourism: a self-transcendent emotions perspective

Tourism can contribute to the sustainable development of a rural destination, but tourists’ sustainable behaviours often determine the extent of impact. Thus, exploration of the factors that affect the sustainable behaviours of tourists participating in rural tourism may facilitate the development of sustainable rural tourism. Using self-transcendent emotions as a primary lens, our study proposes a theoretical framework to unpack the relationship between engagement with beauty, self-transcendent emotions, and sustainable behaviour. Based on questionnaire data collected from 437 tourists in Luanchuan, China and analysed using Mplus, results show that engagement with beauty (natural beauty, artistic beauty, and moral beauty) can stimulate tourists’ self-transcendent emotions. The stronger the perception of engagement with beauty, the stronger the self-transcendent emotions, which promote sustainable behaviour. This study offers a theoretical understanding of the sustainable development of rural tourism, showing that beauty of destination attractions can affect sustainable behaviours through the experience of self-transcendent emotions. It also provides management suggestions for the development of rural tourism. By optimising the management of tourists’ engagement with beauty and self-transcendent emotions, rural communities can guide tourists’ behaviour to improve sustainable tourism in rural communities.

The Two Narrators of Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where Are You

Abstract: Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where Are You presents two different conceptions of beauty: morally inflected or purely aesthetic. Alice's interest in moral beauty leads her to an unorthodox faith in the Christian God, while Eileen, unable to believe in a God that unifies the good, the true, and the beautiful or accept Christ as the Word-made-flesh, looks for beauty in the world around her. Rooney crafts a narratological analogue for this way of seeing, a beautiful narrator that models looking past the mundane to see the hidden beauty in daily life.

In God’s Image: An Anthropology of the Spirit by Michael Welker

Reviewed by: In God’s Image: An Anthropology of the Spirit by Michael Welker Derek Nelson In God’s Image: An Anthropology of the Spirit. By Michael Welker. Translated by Douglas W. Stott. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2021. xii + 155 pp. This book by German theologian Michael Welker continues and departs from his established approach and points of emphasis. It is the published version of his Gifford Lectures from 2019–2020, in an excellent translation from the German. Indeed, as a longtime reader of Welker’s books, I have not quite “heard” his voice in English as clearly as I have in this book, and for that reason, as well as the way the book synthesizes and moves forward Welker’s past theological program, it may be the best place to start in exploring Welker’s oeuvre. Welker’s book depends on two conceptual contrasts. One is the contrast between “multimodal” and what he calls “bipolar” thinking. Multimodal and multipolar thinking is Welker’s way of updating the work of the younger Hegel, who thought of human and divine spirit realizing themselves (literally, “making real”) in human justice and freedom. The divine Spirit, for Welker, cannot be simply contrasted to the human spirit in the way that “revelational” theologies tend to do. Multimodal means something like multi- centered and multi-medial. When I communicate multimodally, for instance, using text, images, technologies, music, and so on, I cannot use [End Page 440] simple opposites like “form” and “content,” such that what I want to say is one thing, and how I communicate is another. How I communicate becomes part of what I am communicating. Bipolarity is a problem for theology because “In situations in which one sensed that the spirit was somehow ‘more’ than could be articulated by bipolar reductions, the remedy . . . was simply to view it as a mysterious, nebulous, incomprehensible power” (25). Welker’s alternative is, as in past works, to develop a “realistic” theology. This means a theology that corresponds with, speaks to, and emerges from reality itself. Because reality is complicated and messy, so too must theology be. Here Welker draws on Bonhoeffer’s later insight that “Christianity . . . puts us into many different dimensions of life at the same time; in a way we accommodate God and the whole world within us. Life isn’t pushed back into a single dimension but is kept multidimensional, polyphonic” (109–10). This means that Welker’s conversation partners will necessarily be from across the spectrum of academic disciplines and avenues of high and popular culture. It also means that Welker’s theology is “realistic” in an additional way, namely being realistic about the awful and dreadful things human beings do when gripped by a false spirit of sin and evil. “Emotionalized public sentiment” is one such dangerous threat that Welker identifies (6–9) and comes back to throughout the book. The second conceptual contrast is the difference between the positive presence of some good versus the mere absence of its opposite. This, it seems to me, is the organizing principle for the second half of the book, which in four chapters deals with the human callings to justice, freedom, truth, and peace. Each of those goods can be defined negatively, such as “justice” being something like “conflict limitation” (51) and “freedom” being something like “to be without barriers” (69, quoting Rüdiger Bittner). But Christianity proposes and moves toward the institutionalization of the positive presence of real justice, and the moral beauty of real freedom. My two criticisms are related. The book is so evocative and, by Welker’s self-assigned task and the nature of the Gifford Lectures, so connected to multiple fields of human endeavor that a two-page conclusion (129–131) is hardly adequate. Welker’s principles of [End Page 441] selection for conversation partners also raise questions. Why does Welker deal with Arendt and Habermas in political theory and not others? Why Nicholas Luhmann on pluralism, and not others? For a sociologist everything is data. For a theologian, on the other hand, a careful sifting and principled engagement with non-theological disciplines is required. Notwithstanding these concerns, this book will be of service to any theologian...

Only the good cry: Investigating the relationship between crying proneness and moral judgments and behavior

People cry for various reasons and in numerous situations, some involving highly moral aspects such as altruism or moral beauty. At the same time, criers have been found to be evaluated as more morally upright—they are perceived as more honest, reliable, and sincere than non-criers. The current project provides a first comprehensive investigation to test whether this perception is adequate. Across six studies sampling Dutch, Indian, and British adults (N = 2325), we explored the relationship between self-reported crying proneness and moral judgments and behavior, employing self-report measures and actual behavior assessments. Across all studies, we observed positive correlations of crying proneness with moral judgments (r = .27 [.17, .38]) and prosocial behavioral tendencies and behaviors (r = .20 [.12, .28]). These associations held in three (moral judgment) or two (prosocial tendencies and behaviors) out of five studies when controlling for other important variables. Thus, the current project provides first evidence that crying is related to moral evaluation and behavior, and we discuss its importance for the literature on human emotional crying.

The Role of Ancient Sports and Zurkhaneh in Ethical Promoting and Religious Virtues

ABSTRACT The roots of ‘ancient sport’, or Zurkhaneh, as its name implies, go back to ancient Iran and the rituals of Mithraism, in which believers pray and learn morality and humanity in cave-shape temples built in connection with running water. After the advent of Islam and the fall of the ancient religions, temples gave way to Zurkhanehs, and athletes who, while learning moral teachings, cultivated physical strength to resist external enemy forces and internal oppression, grown in those Zurkhanehs. With a tendency to Sufism, Shi`ism and following the first Imam of the Shiites, athletes became heroes and knights, many of whom today, after hundreds of years, are still the cultural myths of the people of Iran. The ancient sports such as wrestling are a symbol of human and moral virtues, the promotion of which can lead to the growth and development of the moral beauty and chivalry culture among all athletes in various sports and lead to institutionalize characteristics of heroism and magnanimity in society. Ancient sports exercising tools, art and architecture of Zurkhaneh, poems, rituals and personalities form the nature of Zurkhaneh and ancient sports have a great impact on the formation of heroic identity and the way to perform the sport movements with the special instruments of Zurkhaneh, which is accompanied by epic and religious poems. In fact, Zurkhaneh instruments, the type of poems that are recited and the existence of epic and religious patterns complement each other. This process increases the effect of Zurkhaneh on the formation of athletic and heroic identity among sportsmen. As such, it will be suggested that Zurkhareh offers an ethical ideal from which globalized Western sport can learn.

Manahil al-Safa fi Jamal al-Mustafa by Abu al-Abbas Ahmed bin Abd al-Hay al-Halabi al-Fassi (1120 AH) - study and investigation -

This research is a study and investigation of a manuscript on the biography, beauty and morals of our Noble Prophet Muhammad bin Abdullah, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, whose name is (Manahil al-Safa fi Dhat al-Mustafa, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him) by Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Abd al-Hayy al-Halabi al-Fassi (d. 1120 AH), which is a manuscript of nine papers, in which he spoke. The author before describing the beauty of the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, with an introduction to the meaning of beauty and majesty in the language, and he mentioned benefits and warnings in it, then he described the beauty of God Almighty, and after that he mentioned the images of the Prophet Muhammad, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, physical and moral beauty that God Almighty preferred and distinguished him from other prophets And other people and made it a reason to win the hearts of many people and their entry into the religion of God Almighty. In his words, the author of the manuscript cited verses from the Noble Qur’an, hadiths from the Sunnah, and verses from Arabic poetry, in addition to the rhetorical and jurisprudential sayings of scholars, through which he clarifies the intended meaning of the images of beauty mentioned or mentioned by scholars who preceded him, relying on various sources, including: Books Interpretation of the Noble Qur’an, books of the Prophet’s biography, books of the noble Prophet’s hadith, books and dictionaries of the Arabic language, books of jurisprudence, books of mysticism and faiths

Moral Beauty During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prosocial Behavior Among Adolescents and the Inspiring Role of the Media.

In this study, we examined whether adolescents helped others during the COVID-19 pandemic and how stories in the media inspired them in doing so. Using an online daily diary design, 481 younger adolescents (M = 15.29, SD = 1.76) and 404 older adolescents (M = 21.48, SD = 1.91) were followed for 2 weeks. Findings from linear mixed effects models demonstrated that feelings of being moved by stories in the media were related to giving emotional support to family and friends, and to helping others, including strangers. Exposure to COVID-19 news and information was found to spark efforts to support and help as well and keeping physical distance in line with the advised protective behaviors against COVID-19. Moreover, helping others was related to increased happiness. Overall, the findings of this study highlight the potential role of the media in connecting people in times of crisis.

Implications of Liberal Education in Aristotle’s Theory of Music Education

이 글은 아리스토텔레스의 ｢정치학｣에서 여가에 적합한 교육내용으로 언급되고 있는 음악 교과의 성격과 그 교육적 가치 문제에 대한 논의를 살펴봄으로써, 그가 말하는 자유교육의 기능을 검토하기 위한 것이다. 고대 희랍의 자유교육의 전통에서 음악은 체육이나 문학과 더불어 핵심적인 위치를 차지하였다. 그러다가 고전기가 끝나갈 무렵, 연주는 전문가에게 맡겨지고 아마추어는 감상자로 밀려나는 경향이 나타나면서 음악과 사장의 분리가 이루어지고, 음악 교과는 점차 학교교육의 영역에서 쇠퇴하게 된다. 이러한 상황에서 아리스토텔레스는 자유인의 교육에서 음악이 차지하는 위상과 그 중요성을 있는 힘을 다하여 정당화하고 있다. 그는 음악이 교과에서 제외될 때 발생하는 결함, 즉 인간성의 부조화를 심히 우려하는 것이다. 이성에 의하여 규제되지 않는 정서와 마찬가지로 올바른 정서에 의하여 견인되지 않는 이성도 오류에 빠질 수 있기 때문이다. 중등교육 단계에서 이루어지는 음악교육은 우리의 영혼이 쾌감을 올바르게 느낄 수 있도록 훈련함으로써 도덕적 품성을 도야하기 위한 것이다. 노래를 부르고 악기를 직접 연주하는 동안 그 당사자는 품성을 재현하고 있는 음악에서 도덕적 아름다움을 느끼게 되고 그의 품성은 차츰 음악의 리듬과 화성 저 너머에 있는 실재를 닮아가게 된다. 그의 체계에서 음악교육은 도덕교육과 지식교육의 교차점에 위치해 있다. 이러한 교육은 그의 이성과 감정이 조화를 이룬 도덕적 실천가를 지향한다.This article is to examine the function of liberal education by considering the nature of the music subject and its educational value, which is mentioned as an educational content suitable for leisure in Aristotle’s Politika. In the ancient Greek tradition of liberal education, music occupied a central position along with physical education and literature. Then, at the end of the classical period, there was a tendency to limit music performance to professionals and to define amateurs as viewers. As a result, music and literature were separated, and the music subject gradually declined from the realm of school education. Under these circumstances, Aristotle did his best to justify the status and importance of music in the education of free men. He was deeply concerned about the defect that occurs when music is excluded from the curriculum, that is, the dissonance of human nature. This is because, just like the emotions not regulated by reason, reason that is not driven by the right emotions can fall into error. Music education at the secondary level of education is to cultivate moral character by training our souls to properly feel pleasure. While singing and playing the instrument himself, the performer can feel the moral beauty in the music that reproduces the character, and his character gradually goes beyond the rhythm and harmony of music to resemble existence. In this system, music education is located at the intersection between moral and knowledge education. This education aims for a moral practitioner whose reason and emotions are in harmony.

THE SEGADORS OF LA RENAIXENÇA: LITERATURE SHAPING HISTORY

This article examines how nineteenth-century literary representations of the segadors of 1640 contributed to their transformation as symbols of Catalan identity associated today with the national anthem that bears their name. From the 1850s, histories, novels, and poems by Víctor Balaguer, Manuel Angelon, and Josep Anselm Clavé, among others, represented the popular rebels, not as heroes but as animal-like, bloodthirsty, and mad for revenge, in contrast to the moral beauty of the true heroes of the Guerra dels Segadors: Barcelona’s consellers and the Catalan diputats and, above all, their president, Pau Claris. However, by casting the fury of the segadors as a visceral reaction to abuses by royal officials and soldiers, these authors inadvertently set the stage for their later transformation as defenders of Catalan liberty. The story of this transformation recasts the relationship between Romantic literature and history: rather than simply mine history for dramatic stories, literature could, in fact, shape the study of history by drawing attention to subjects toward which historians had shown little interest.

Thick and Perceptual Moral Beauty

ABSTRACT Which traits are beautiful? And is their beauty perceptual? It is argued that moral virtues are partly beautiful to the extent that they tend to give rise to a certain emotion—ecstasy—and that compassion tends to be more beautiful than fair-mindedness because it tends to give rise to this emotion to a greater extent. It is then argued, on the basis that emotions are best thought of as a special, evaluative, kind of perception, that this argument suggests that moral virtues are partly beautiful to the extent that they tend to give rise to a certain kind of evaluative perceptual experience.

Natural and Moral Beauty Have Indirect Effects on Proenvironmental Behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effectiveness of video-induced emotions on motivation for proenvironmental behavior (PEB). Participants (n = 205) were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: viewing short videos of (1) natural beauty, (2) environmental degradation (ugly nature), or (3) moral beauty; and two control conditions: videos of (4) mundane nature (rocks in a desert) and (5) non-nature (flute making). Surprisingly, none of the videos, and resulting emotional states, had direct effects on PEB, but they did have indirect effects through the self-transcendent emotions of awe and elevation, and through visual beauty. The natural beauty video, compared with the non-nature video, promoted intentions for PEB (I-PEB) and donation behavior, through the specific indirect effect of elevation (but not awe); likewise, the natural beauty video, compared with the mundane nature video, also promoted both I-PEB and donation behavior through the indirect effect of elevation (and again, not through awe). The moral beauty video, compared with the non-nature video, promoted I-PEB and donation behavior, through the combined influence of awe and elevation, but not from either awe or elevation alone; the same pattern emerged when comparing the effects of the moral beauty video with the mundane nature video. The level of visual beauty of the videos positively predicted both I-PEB and donation behavior. Unexpectedly, the natural beauty and moral beauty videos were rated equally high on the moral emotion of elevation. However, this can be explained by past research indicating that beautiful landscapes have moral standing.

Neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty.

The judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty objectively refer to the perception and evaluation of moral traits, which are generally influenced by facial attractiveness. For centuries, people have equated beauty with the possession of positive qualities, but it is not clear whether the association between beauty and positive qualities exerts a similarly implicit influence on people's responses to moral goodness and moral beauty, how it affects those responses, and what is the neural basis for such an effect. The present study is the first to examine the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty. We found that beautiful faces in both moral judgments activated the left ventral occipitotemporal cortices sensitive to the geometric configuration of the faces, demonstrating that both moral goodness and moral beauty required the automatic visual analysis of geometrical configuration of attractive faces. In addition, compared to beautiful faces during moral goodness judgment, beautiful faces during moral beauty judgment induced unique activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and midline cortical structures involved in the emotional-valenced information about attractive faces. The opposite comparison elicited specific activity in the left superior temporal cortex and premotor area, which play a critical role in the recognition of facial identity. Our results demonstrated that the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the process of higher order moral decision-makings exhibit both task-general and task-specific characteristics. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the essence of the relationship between morality and aesthetics.

The power of external influences to modify judgments of facial and moral beauty.

Empirical evidence shows that the often-made positive correlation between human physical and moral beauty is tenuous. In this study, we aimed to learn whether facial and moral beauty can be psychophysically separated. Participants (n=95) provided beauty and goodness (i.e., trustworthiness) ratings for pictures of faces, after which they were presented with a fictitious peer rating for the same face and asked to re-rate the face. We used the difference between the initial and final ratings to quantify the degree of resistance to external influence. We found that judgments of facial beauty were more resistant to external influence than judgments of facial "goodness"; in addition, there was significantly higher agreement within beauty ratings than within goodness ratings. These findings are discussed in light of our Bayesian-Laplacian classification of priors, from which we conclude that moral beauty relies more upon acquired "artifactual" priors and facial beauty more on inherited biological priors.

Uralsky, M. (2019). <i>Mark Aldanov. A writer, a public figure and a gentleman of Russian emigration</i>. Prefaced by S. Pesterev and S. Garciano. St. Petersburg: Aleteya. (In Russ.)

This first biographical account of M. Aldanov was authored by M. Uralsky, a writer of documentary prose. While not a strict academic publication, the book shows a thorough approach to selection of the material and verification of facts and introduces hitherto unknown documents, thus qualifying as a compelling piece of scholarly research. The book’s three parts are dedicated to key periods of Aldanov’s life: ‘A young Aldanov — happy years’ (1886–1917), ‘A historical novelist of Russian emigration’ (1919–1940), and ‘The twilight of life and work’ (1947–1957). Uralsky uncovered a number of new materials relating to Aldanov’s childhood and adolescence and his work in emigration, completing a reconstruction of the writer’s life. The biographer examines Aldanov’s personality as an artist, a literary critic, a journalist and a scholar. The book’s leitmotif is to actualise Aldanov’s idea of writers dedicating themselves to kalokagathia — the ‘moral beauty.’