Moral Beauty Research Articles

Podem ações morais serem belas? Sobre a possibilidade de uma estética moral a partir de David Hume

O presente artigo tem como objetivo defender a possibilidade da existência da beleza moral a partir da teoria moral e estética de David Hume. A relação entre a estética e a moralidade será analisada, na primeira parte. A hipótese da beleza moral será colocada como uma destas possíveis relações. Dentro das possibilidades de se fundamentar a beleza moral, será argumentado que a melhor seria através da compreensão humeana da estética e da moralidade. A segunda parte do artigo analisa o conceito de experiência estética e a sua importância para a fundamentação humeana da beleza moral. Por fim, a teoria moral e estética proposta por Hume será desenvolvida a fins de demonstrar como a sua teoria moral e estética possuem uma relação intrínseca que possibilitaria a confirmação da hipótese da beleza moral.

The Concept of Esthetics and Beauty in Islam as one of the components of Islamic art

The concept of beauty (jamaal) is considered the intellectual foundation upon which many artistic achievements are built. This study aims to address the concept of beauty in Islam through three sources: the Noble Quran, the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, and the opinions of early Muslim thinkers. A systematic literature review was conducted to collect data, and an analysis was performed to examine the topic of this study. Among the most important results is that the concept of beauty in Islam is divided into two parts: moral beauty and formal beauty. In Islamic vision, the former is more important than the latter. A consensus has also been reached among the Quran, the Prophet’s teachings, and the opinions of Muslim thinkers regarding this interpretation.

Hume e la bellezza del sistema copernicano

In critical studies, Hume's relationship with Copernicus has rarely been examined and little space has been given to an analysis of the function that Hume assigns to the problem of moral feeling, moral beauty, and taste and to Milton's poetry. The purpose of the following pages will be precisely to investigate this relationship. The thesis that will emerge will be that the judgment on Copernicus is not pronounced only from a purely logical point of view but is also based on elements of Hume's moral and aesthetic theory of sentiment, taste and beauty.

The Art of Design Between Aesthetic Theories

Abstract: Inevitably, there has been an eternal struggle between material and intangible values since man's existence on earth. The art of design is one of the ancient arts that added a contemporary aesthetic aspect, whether in architecture, industry or printing, which was associated with later eras, the eras of discoveries and modern industrial technologies that have a relationship with industrial material values in general, but the material values in design are not similar to those material values that characterize the works Great artistic as well as their intangible value. Because the value in artistic works is the intangible values that lead to the creation of material values and that the material value in the art of design emerges through the performance, functional and utilitarian capacity, and these characteristics and characteristics are what determine the material values in the art of design. We also find it in a palace, plane, car, or building that realizes aesthetic values capable of satisfying the various needs of mankind, and the intention is to limit these values between two aspects: moral beauty, physical beauty.

Moral Beauty, Inside and Out

ABSTRACT In this article, robust evidence is provided showing that an individual’s moral character can contribute to the aesthetic quality of their appearance, as well as being beautiful or ugly itself. It is argued that this evidence supports two main conclusions. First, moral beauty and ugliness reside on the inside, and beauty and ugliness are not perception-dependent as a result; and, second, aesthetic perception is affected by moral information, and thus moral beauty and ugliness are on the outside as well.

БЛАГОТВОРИТЕЛНОСТТА – УРОК ПО ЧОВЕЧНОСТ И ДОБРОТА

This article describes good practices and initiatives of the club „Give a hand“ to the First Primary School „St. Cyril and St. Methodius“, Gotse Delchev, related to volunteering and charity. Charity and volunteering are a social responsibility, because every helping hand is a sign of good hope. Volunteering is an integral part of charity and will instil in your child discipline and a sense of responsibility. Daily charity is something that helps people look beyond their own world. In this way, people and the nation as a whole grow. For the students and pedagogical specialists of the First Primary School „St. Cyril and St. Methodius“, charity is a generosity that creates moral beauty. The collective charity we all strive for as a team brings emotional and physical benefits to all. She develops communication skills, organization, time management, teamwork, and valuable knowledge.

Implementation of the aesthetic ideal in the ” Diary of a writer

The proposed work is devoted to the study of F. M. Dostoevsky’s aesthetics, in particular, the aesthetic ideal of the writer. Following Kant, Hegel, and Schiller, the Russian writer considered the ideal in an anthropological aspect. The aesthetic ideal of the Russian writer is a person who expresses the moral principle, the divine in man. The idea of moral beauty is expressed in the theoretical thought of the Russian writer. Harmony and good looks serve only as an outer shell, when the moral height appears as the aesthetic ideal of F. M. Dostoevsky. To this beauty, truth, his works strive. Following the examples of “positive beauty” of world and domestic literature and art, Dostoevsky recreated in his works positively beautiful characters. The Russian writer speaks of the duality of beauty, the “two abysses” of the human soul: “Sodom” - low, sinful, connected with the beauty of the body, sensual, and “Madona” - high, connected with spiritual beauty, a person can combine both. The writer’s aesthetic ideal is turned to spiritual beauty. Of particular interest is Dostoevsky’s “Diary of a writer”. It is in it that the idea of the writer’s aesthetic ideal is clearly expressed. The question of the ideal person is considered in the context of underground (afterlife) life in the story “Bobok” and above-ground space in “the dream of a funny man”. These stories and the publicistic texts that frame them reveal the inner dynamics of the writer’s worldview: from the statement of the corruption of the spirit and the immortality of the soul (“Bobok”) to the tragic insight of the truth (“Meek”) and to the statement of the” living”image of the truth (“the dream of a funny man”). The story explicitly expresses the overcoming of such a painful contradiction between the individual and the General, between a positively beautiful person and society.

Cognitive Process Differences Between Moral Beauty Judgments and Moral Goodness Judgments

Goodness and beauty have always been important topics of debate in the field of philosophy and aesthetics. The present study used behavior and event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether moral beauty judgments and moral goodness judgments involve different cognitive processes or the same cognitive process under different language labels for the same human act. Behavioral results showed that individuals gave significantly higher scores for a beautiful face than an ugly face when making moral beauty judgments, but there were no significant differences between the two conditions when making moral goodness judgments. The ERP experiment displayed larger P2 amplitudes and the late positive potential (LPP) amplitude was elicited when displaying beautiful faces but not ugly faces during moral beauty judgments. However, during moral goodness judgments, the P2 and LPP showed no significant differences under the two conditions. In general, we conclude that moral beauty judgments and moral goodness judgments involve different cognitive processes, although they objectively refer to the same human act. One of the most important differences between moral beauty judgments and moral goodness judgments was that the former process involved an image, whereas the latter did not. The present conclusion provides important insights into the research in aesthetic perception and moral sense.

Реализация эстетического идеала в «Дневнике писателя» Ф.М. Достоевского

The work is devoted to the study of F.M. Dostoevsky’s aesthetics, in particular, the writer’s aesthetic ideal. Following Kant, Hegel, and Schiller, the Russian writer considered the ideal in an anthropological aspect. The writer’s aesthetic ideal is a person who synthesizes the moral and spiritual in himself. The idea of moral beauty is expressed in the theoretical thought of the Russian writer. Harmony, comeliness serve only as an outer shell, when moral height appears as the aesthetic ideal of F.M. Dostoevsky. His works strive for this beauty and truth. Following the examples of “positive beauty” of world and domestic literature and art, F.M. Dostoevsky recreated in his works positively beautiful characters. The Russian writer speaks of the duality of beauty, the “two abysses” of the human soul: “Sodom” – low, sinful, connected with the beauty of the body, sensual, and “Madonna” – high, connected with spiritual beauty, a person can combine both. The writer’s aesthetic ideal is turned to spiritual beauty. Of particular interest is the “A Writer’s Diary” by F.M. Dostoevsky. It is in this work that the writer’s idea of the aesthetic ideal clearly expressed. The question of the ideal person is considered in the context of underground (afterlife) life in the story “Bobok” and above-ground space in “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”. In these stories and journalistic texts framing them, the internal dynamics of the writer’s worldview position are revealed: from stating the corruption of the spirit and immortality of the soul (“Bobok”) to the tragic insight of the truth (“A Gentle Creature”) and the affirmation of the “living” image of truth (“The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”). The story explicitly expresses the overcoming of such a painful contradiction between the individual and the general, between a positively beautiful person and society.

ЧИТАННЯ ЯК ВАЖЛИВИЙ ЗАСІБ СОЦІАЛІЗАЦІЇ ДИТИНИ: AКТУАЛІЗАЦІЯ ПОГЛЯДІВ В. О. СУХОМЛИНСЬКОГО

У статті акцентовано увагу на проблемі соціалізації дитини в суспільстві, її здатності до самоусвідомлення та самовдосконалення, до активної участі у соціальному житті країни. Зазначено, що в Законі України «Про освіту» визначено мету повної загальної середньої освіти – всебічний розвиток, виховання і соціалізація особистості. Проте відмічено, що сьогодні процес соціалізації особистості у закладах освіти набув характеру другорядності, поступившись першочерговістю процесу навчання. З’ясовано, що В. О. Сухомлинський виділяв школу як один з найважливіших соціальних інститутів, що забезпечує підготовку учнів до життя у суспільстві, визначає можливості особистісного, громадянського й професійного вибору. При цьому педагог вважав читання книг важливим засобом соціалізації дитини. Здійснений аналіз дав змогу стверджувати, що читання для Василя Олександровича виступало засобом уведення школярів в систему людських знань, формування уявлень про головні етапи життя людства. Зосереджено увагу, що Василь Олександрович Сухомлинський під час читання творів акцентував увагу на можливості показу моральної краси рідного народу, його уявлення про щастя: воно не лише у коханні, сімейному благополуччі, а й в усвідомленні правильно вибраного місця в житті, у прагненні до світлого майбутнього, у нерозривному зв’язку особистого і суспільного. Обґрунтовано, що у практичній діяльності Павлиської школи учні під час читання отримували знання, які були корисними для них в контексті загальнолюдських проблем; переорієнтації змісту з об’єктивно-байдужного на визначення його місця і ролі в соціокультурному аспекті; інтеграції різних знань щодо проблем становлення жінки і чоловіка.

Neural correlates of moral goodness and moral beauty judgments

The objects of moral goodness and moral beauty judgments both generally refer to the positive moral acts or virtues of humans, and goodness must precede moral beauty. The main difference is that moral beauty, but not moral goodness, triggers emotional elevation. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms involved in both judgments. In the current study, 28 healthy female participants were scanned when they rated the good and beautiful extent of positive moral acts in daily life depicted in scene drawings to investigate the neural systems supporting moral goodness and moral beauty, specifically to test whether neural activity associated with moral beauty is same or different than moral goodness. The conjunction analysis of the contrasts between moral goodness judgment and moral beauty judgment identified the involvement of the left inferior orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), suggesting that the two judgments recruited the activity of a common brain region. Importantly, compared with the moral goodness judgment, the moral beauty judgment induced greater activity in more advanced cortical regions implicated in elevated emotions, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and the left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). These regions have been strongly correlated with the cognitive aspects of moral cognition, including theory of mind (ToM). In addition, moral beauty judgment also activated brain regions implicated in empathy including the midline structures and the anterior insula. Based on these results, the brain harbors neural systems for common and for domain-specific evaluations of moral goodness and moral beauty judgments. Our study thus provides novel and compelling neural evidence for the essence of moral beauty and advances the current knowledge of the neural mechanisms underlying the beauty-is-good stereotype.

Different influences of facial attractiveness on judgments of moral beauty and moral goodness

Are beauty and goodness the same? The relationship between beauty and goodness has long been a controversial issue in the fields of philosophy, aesthetics, ethics and psychology. Although many empirical studies have explored moral judgment and aesthetic judgment separately, only a few studies have compared the two. Whether these two judgments are two different processes or the same process with two different labels remains unclear. To answer this question, the present study directly compared the influence of facial attractiveness on judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty and revealed distinct contributions of imaging perceptions to these two judgments. The results showed that in the moral beauty judgment task, participants gave higher scores to characters with attractive faces compared with characters with unattractive faces, and larger P200 and LPP were elicited in the unattractive-face condition compared with the attractive-face condition; while in the moral goodness judgment task, there was no significant difference between the two conditions of either behaviour or ERP data. These findings offer important insights into the understanding and comparison of the processes of moral judgment and aesthetic judgment.

Functional Beauty, Pleasure, and Experience

ABSTRACT I offer a set of sufficient conditions for (a kind of) beauty, drawing on Parsons and Carlson’s account of ‘functional beauty’. First, I argue that their account is flawed, whilst falling short of its promise of bringing comprehensiveness and unity to aesthetics. Instead, I propose, the account should be modified to state that if an object is well-formed for its function(s) and pleases competent judges in so far as it is thus experienced, then it is (functionally) beautiful. I argue that my proposal offers greater informativeness, comprehensiveness, and unity—accommodating, inter alia, mathematical, literary, and moral beauty—whilst surviving reflective scrutiny.

Moral Elevation and Economic Games: The Moderating Role of Personality.

Moral elevation is the prototypical emotional response when witnessing virtuous deeds of others. Yet, little is known about the role of individual differences that moderate the susceptibility to experiencing this self-transcendent emotion. The present experiment investigated the role of personality traits as moderators of elevation and its behavioral effects using economic games as a measure for prosocial behavior. One aim was to replicate prior findings on trait Engagement with Moral Beauty as moderator for experimentally induced state elevation. A second aim was to explore new potential moderators that were found to be connected to the moral realm: Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness vs. Anger, and Need for Cognition. Third, the present study is among the few investigating the effects of elevation on different prosocial actions and intentions. A sample of US American college students (N = 144) was randomly assigned to either watch a morally uplifting or a humorous video clip. Afterwards, all participants played a dictator game and an ultimatum game, and were asked to volunteer in another time-consuming experiment. In line with our hypotheses, experimentally induced state elevation promoted prosocial behavior, however, only within the dictator game. Also in line with our hypotheses, higher levels of Need for Cognition and higher levels of Engagement with Moral Beauty (but not higher levels of Honesty-Humility and Agreeableness vs. Anger) increased prosocial behavior within the experimental group. In contrast to our hypotheses, none of the investigated personality traits moderated the proneness to experience the state of elevation after seeing an elevating video clip; only the behavioral consequences of elevation were moderated. Our results replicate and extend prior findings on moderators for elevation and exemplify the importance of investigating the role of personality traits in the context of the moral elevation phenomenon.

Moral beauty and education

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to rekindle a version of the age-old view that aesthetic education can contribute to the development of virtue. It proceeds as follows. First, it introduces the moral beauty view, whereby the moral virtues are beautiful, and the moral vices ugly, character traits. Second, two ways in which moral beauty and ugliness can manifest themselves are considered: in people and in artworks. Third, it is argued that character education couched partly in aesthetic terms, and coupled with the cultivation of a sensitivity to moral beauty and ugliness, promise a solid and motivationally robust anchor for moral character development. It is suggested that introducing the notions of moral beauty and ugliness in our conceptual repertoire, coupled with the presence of moral beauty in our surroundings, can undergird more traditional pathways to virtue, whilst being congenial to the maintenance of virtue. Before closing, three objections against these suggestions are addressed, and some avenues for exploring the notion of moral beauty vis-à-vis moral motivation and education are proposed.

The neural correlates of integrated aesthetics between moral and facial beauty

Facial beauty and moral beauty have been suggested to be two significant forms of social aesthetics. However, it remains unknown the extent to which there are neural underpinnings of the integration of these two forms of beauty. In the present study, participants were asked to make general aesthetic judgments of facial portraits and moral descriptions while collecting fMRI data. The facial portrait and moral description were randomly paired. Neurally, the appreciation of facial beauty and moral beauty recruited a common network involving the middle occipital gyrus (MOG) and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). The activities of the mOFC varied across aesthetic conditions, while the MOG was specifically activated in the most beautiful condition. In addition, there was a bilateral insular cortex response to ugliness specifically in the congruent aesthetic conditions, while SMA was selectively responsive to the most ugly condition. Activity associated with aesthetic conflict between facial and moral aesthetic information was limited to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), with enhanced response to the incongruent condition compared to the congruent condition. These findings provide novel neural evidence for the integrated aesthetics of social beauty and suggest that integrated aesthetics is a more complex cognitive process than aesthetics restricted to a single modality.

The role of elevation in moral judgment

ABSTRACTElevation is the emotion elicited by witnessing acts of moral beauty and may be framed as the opposite of disgust. Two studies investigated the role of elevation in moral judgment and its relation to disgust. In Study 1 it was investigated whether elevation can attenuate the effects of disgust on moral transgression judgments. Participants were either induced to experience disgust (by giving them a bitter beverage), or to experience disgust and elevation simultaneously (by video induction). No effects of either emotion on moral transgression judgments were found. In Study 2 the nature of causal connectedness between elevation and moral virtue judgments was investigated by testing whether elevation amplifies moral virtue judgments. It was found that participants judged morally good acts as being more morally good when being elevated, suggesting that there is a bidirectional causal link between elevation and judgments of moral virtue.

Akira Kurosawa's Hakuchi (The Idiot) as a dialogue with Dostoevsky on existence, moral beauty and trauma

Akira Kurosawa's Hakuchi (The Idiot) as a dialogue with Dostoevsky on existence, moral beauty and trauma

Trait Appreciation of Beauty: A Story of Love, Transcendence, and Inquiry

This review of the trait of appreciation of beauty (AoB) draws from the literature in personality psychology, philosophy, religion, neuroscience, neuro-aesthetics, evolutionary psychology, and the psychology of morality. We demonstrate that AoB can be mapped onto a definition of appreciation that includes perceptual, cognitive, emotional, trait, virtue, and valuing elements. A classic component of defining beauty, unity-in-diversity, is described based on the works of a variety of major philosophers. We next describe that there are at least four channels of appreciation of beauty: natural beauty, artistic beauty, moral beauty, and beautiful ideas. Examining the neuro-aesthetics research indicates that many networks of the brain are involved in mental acts of appreciating beauty, but the medial orbital front cortex (mOFC) is implicated across all four channels of beauty. We then explain how the trait of AoB is a member of three different families of traits: traits of love, traits of transcendence, and traits of inquiry. Next we briefly explain why Kant may have been more correct than Hegel concerning beauty and the good soul. We then present evidence that women may appreciate beauty somewhat more than men. Data from many cultures and nations consistently indicate this. After that we claim AoB leads to individual and collective flourishing. We examine and summarize studies that indicate appreciation of natural beauty leads to a wide variety of positive outcomes; we focus on the importance of open-mindedness that accompanies engagement with artistic beauty; and we summarize studies regarding the moral emotion of elevation and appreciation of moral beauty. Suggested future directions for research are embedded in each subsection of the paper.

Pro-social messages and transcendence: A content analysis of Facebook reactions to Mark Zuckerberg's donation pledge

This quantitative content analysis of over 4000 Facebook posts explores the connections between transcendence-related character strengths and emotions expressed on social media in response to Mark Zuckerberg's pledge to give away 99% of his Facebook shares to charity. We found that (a) other-oriented hope was found in over half of the posts expressing hopeful thinking; (b) appreciation of moral beauty and excellence was the most prevalent moral emotion or character strength expressed in response to this prosocial act on Facebook; and (c) the presence of appreciation of moral beauty and excellence was positively correlated with the presence of hope, other-oriented hope, and spirituality. Implications of the study are discussed.