Art as a moral character expression

Abstract

The author deals with the nature of a relationship between art and morals. Since art refers to the expression of a sensibility and modern moral philosophy is said to be based upon being in possession of a moral sense, it seems that the artistic personality would be in a better position than mere reflection to show how our sensibility ought to be constituted. However, some artists' lives, like Gauguin, whose case has been analysed by Bernard Williams, and Pablo Picasso, whose lack of moral character was evidenced by a James Ivory's film in 1996, can force us to ask ourselves whether being a sensible person means, at the same time, to be a moral person. A reflection on Picassos' life, as described in the film Surviving Picasso, inspires me to consider how a moral person in fact ought to be characterised. I begin with a reflection on the relationship between moral sensibility and the foundation of morals, as it was seen by the classical philosophy, and develop Kant's critique to the attempts to define moral sense just as an afective issue. Next, I consider nevertheless the possible relationships between moral sensibility and artistic sensibility. Finally, I conclude with a proposed characterization of an immoral personality, as it has been suggested to me by the thought of the Chilean-American psychiatrist Otto Kernberg.