Ryan Doran: "Truly, Madly, Deeply"

Ryan Doran, University of Cambridge: "Truly, Madly, Deeply: Moral Beauty, Ecstasy and the Deep/True Self"

Abstract
When is moral goodness beautiful? And what makes morally good actions beautiful, when indeed they are? In this paper, I defend two ideas: that if moral goodness is thought to be deeper, it will be found to be beautiful to that extent; and that if a morally good action is thought to express the true self, then it will be found to be beautiful to that extent. I trace a number of consequences of these views for our understanding of form, the disinterestedness of beauty, the expression theory of beauty, and the response that beauty tends to give rise to.