Morality  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Allegory of the World (1515) from the studio of Joachim Patinir

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books") is a list of publications which the Catholic Church censored for being a danger to itself and the faith of its members. The various editions also contain the rules of the Church relating to the reading, selling and censorship of books. The aim of the list was to prevent the reading of immoral books or works containing theological errors and to prevent the corruption of the faithful.

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Morality refers to the concept of human ethics which pertains to matters of right and wrong — also referred to as "good and evil" — used within three contexts: individual conscience; systems of principles and judgments — sometimes called moral values —shared within a cultural, religious, secular or philosophical community; and codes of behavior or conduct morality.

Personal morality defines and distinguishes among right and wrong intentions, motivations or actions, as these have been learned, engendered, or otherwise developed within each individual.

Morality in judicial systems

In most systems, the lack of morality of the individual can also be a sufficient cause for punishment, or can be an element for the grading of the punishment.

Especially in the systems where modesty (i.e., with reference to sexual crimes) is legally protected or otherwise regulated, the definition of morality as a legal element and in order to determine the cases of infringement, is usually left to the vision and appreciation of the single judge and hardly ever precisely specified. In such cases, it is common to verify an application of the prevalent common morality of the interested community, that consequently becomes enforced by the law for further reference.

Moral lesson

moral lesson, moralist

A moral lesson is a term in narratology used to denote the educational value of a work of art or literature. Moral lessons can be found in fables, emblemata, wisdom poetry, exempla, bestiaries, traditional stories. The moral lesson (the "moral") is usually found at the end and may be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.

Art and morality

art and morality, moral censorship

Art and morality have been discussed, compared and linked for as long as they have been identified as concepts. In the Republic, Plato saw the function of the actor as bogus, presenting a dangerous illusion of reality, and masking the truth of existence by the pretence of acting. Aristotle, in The Poetics, saw the role of the actor somewhat differently, suggesting that by witnessing pity and fear (in his view the essence of tragedy) on stage, an audience could experience a catharsis of the emotions associated with real tragic events, without having to experience them as first-hand participants. Since then, the 'stand-off' between those who have seen art as having a direct impact on morality, and those who have asserted its independence, has persisted.

References

• The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Horace B. Samuel (full text) [1]

See also

amorality, immorality, etiquette, religion

• Amoral and immoral
• Christian morality
• Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral ...
• Ethical dilemma
• Ethics
• Guilt
• History of ideas
• Moral high ground
• Moral lesson
• Moral Machine
• Moral censorship
• Novel of manners
• Mandarin button
• Public morality
• Sittengeschichte
• The ends justify the means
• Victorian morality
• Zeitgeist
• Value theory