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Literary naturalism: The moral machine
Abstract
In contrast to the claim that without freedom from determinism there can be no justification for the attribution of moral responsibility, this work argues that a consistent treatment of ethical concerns actually requires the acceptance of determinism. Realizing that the materialistic, deterministic philosophy of naturalism is compatible with ethical considerations leads, in turn, to a new appreciation of the moral significance of American literary naturalism. It is argued that American literary naturalism represents the modern inheritance of a tradition of naturalistic thought which extends through the work of the French philosophes and into early Greek philosophy. Further, it is argued that the philosophical reconciliation of determinism and moralism bred of this tradition also passes on a phenomenological reconciliation of the seemingly inconsistent objective and subjective approaches to reality. This phenomonological reconciliation is concomitant with a development from subjectivity to greater objectivity on the part of characters in the naturalistic fiction of Oliver Wendell Holmes and Mark Twain.
Subject Area
American literature|Philosophy|American studies
Recommended Citation
Roberts, Ian Ferris, "Literary naturalism: The moral machine" (1997). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9812359.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9812359