Journal of Value Inquiry 56 (2) (2022)
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Abstract |
Modern television is awash in programs that focus on the rough hero, a protagonist that is explicitly depicted as immoral. In this paper I examine why audiences find these characters so compelling, focusing on archetypal rough heroes in two programs: The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. I argue that the ability of rough-hero programs to engender a certain degree of empathy for morally deviant characters despite viewers' resistance to empathizing with these characters' moral views is an aesthetic achievement. In addition, I argue that empathy for the rough hero has cognitive value in that it enables us to reflect on the nuances of the psychology underlying moral deviance. In defending these claims, I offer my view as an alternative to A.W. Eaton's robust immoralist view that the aesthetic value of rough-hero programs lies in their ability to make audiences empathize with immoral perspectives; my claim is that empathy for rough heroes does not extend to their moral outlooks. My view also provides an alternative to Matthew Kieran's cognitive immoralist view that a work's depiction of immorality has cognitive value insofar as it imparts a normative lesson; my claim is that rough-hero programs are cognitively valuable not because they teach us about the perils of acting immorally, but because they help us understand the moral psychology that underlies immoral behavior. I defend an interpretation of rough-hero programs that incorporates insights from Eaton's and Kieran's immoralist views but does not support immoralism.
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Keywords | Empathy Aesthetic Immoralism Aesthetic Cognitivism Antiheroes Imaginative Resistance |
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DOI | 10.1007/s10790-020-09769-8 |
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References found in this work BETA
Will the Real Empathy Please Stand Up? A Case for a Narrow Conceptualization.Amy Coplan - 2011 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 49 (s1):40-65.
Morals in Fiction and Fictional Morality.Kendall L. Walton & Michael Tanner - 1994 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 68 (1):27-66.
Imaginative Resistance and Conversational Implicature.Bence Nanay - 2010 - Philosophical Quarterly 60 (240):586-600.
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