Mirrors to One Another: Emotion and Value in Jane Austen and David HumeISBN: 978-1-4051-9348-1
Hardcover
256 pages
April 2009, Wiley-Blackwell
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- Makes a compelling case for the claim 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
- 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, and does so by considering the work of a single author in detail and in depth
- Goes beyond establishing similarities between Hume and Austen to assert the more ambitious claim that Hume and Austen complement one another, each providing a lens that allows us to expand and elaborate on the ideas of the other