Mirrors to One Another
Emotion and Value in Jane Austen and David Hume
Format:Hardback
Publisher:John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Published:9th Apr '09
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
A compelling exploration of the convergence of Jane Austen’s literary themes and characters with David Hume’s views on morality and human nature.
- Argues that the normative perspectives endorsed in Jane Austen's novels are best characterized in terms of a Humean approach, and that the merits of Hume's account of ethical, aesthetic and epistemic virtue are vividly illustrated by Austen's writing.
- Illustrates how Hume and Austen complement one another, each providing a lens that allows us to expand and elaborate on the ideas of the other
- Proposes that literature may serve as a thought experiment, articulating hypothetical cases which allow the reader to test her moral intuitions
- Contributes to ongoing debates on the philosophy of literature, ethics, and emotion
"Dadlez unpacks the major philosophical trends evident in both Austen and Hume to show that Austen's works were influenced by the intellectual climate resulting from Hume's studies." (Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, December 2009)
"Dadlez says explicitly that her argument is intended to be cumulative: that is, the text reveals the posited relationship between Hume and Austen gradually, through a series of smaller demonstrations as she moves from topic to topic. This makes her book an extremely pleasant read for an Austen aficionado.... Indeed, that the book's strength lies in the details... suggests that it will be of particular value in interdisciplinary contexts: it has the double function of introducing Austen and her literature to philosophers, and Hume and his moral philosophy to students of literature." (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, February 2010)
ISBN: 9781405193481
Dimensions: 231mm x 158mm x 23mm
Weight: 544g
256 pages