Aesthetic Experience and Moral Vision in Plato, Kant, and Murdoch

This book addresses how Plato, Kant, and Iris Murdoch (each in different ways) view the connection aesthetic experience has to morality. While offering an examination of Iris Murdochs philosophy, it analyses deeply the suggestive links (as well as essential distinctions) between Platos and Kants philosophies. Meredith Trexler Drees considers not only Iris Murdochs concept of unselfing, but also its relationship with Kants view of Achtung and Platos view of Eros. In addition, Trexler Drees suggests an extended, and partially amended, version of Murdochs view, arguing that it is more compatible with a religious way of life than Murdoch herself realized. This leads to an expansion of the overall argument to include Kants affirmation of religion as an area of life that can be improved through Platos and Murdochs vision of how being good and being beautiful can be part of the same life-task.