Moral Imagination

Background of the Idea

One can find discussions about moral imagination in twentieth-century philosophy, anthropology, and literature, but eighteenth-century philosophers also realized its importance. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) thought that imagination had to play a role in ethics because pure (a priori) moral principles such as “do not lie” cannot be sensibly applied in the variety of situations that confront people in everyday life. Morality is not simply a set of rules or values. It requires a means of knowing when certain moral principles are relevant and how to apply them. David Hume (1711–1776) thought morality was a mixture of emotion—or passion—and reason. He said that reason had insight but no agency, while passion had agency but no insight. Hume concluded, “reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions” (Hume 1988, 415). Hume believed that imagination transforms our moral feelings, knowledge, and experiences into moral obligation to others through sympathy or empathy; without moral imagination, one would not have empathy. For example, without moral imagination one would not have empathy. Without empathy it would be impossible to apply a moral principle like the golden rule—do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

In the twentieth century, the anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined moral imagination as the ability of people to share emotions across cultures. After reading a Western anthropologist's description of a Balinese ritual in which the concubines of a raja throw themselves into the raja's funeral pyre, Geertz [Page 1020]asked, “How it is that people's creations can be so utterly their own and so deeply a part of us?” (Geertz 1983, 54). While the ceremony itself is barbaric to the Western mind, the art and drama of it also moves people from the West. According to Geertz, moral imagination is a conglomeration of morality, emotion, and art: “Life is translation and we are all lost in it” (Geertz 1983, 55).

Morality also depends on a person's willingness to open up his or her world to include a variety of others. Imagination is not just about creating something new, but about having a broad perspective. As the philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch noted, “moral people are not necessarily more creative, but rather they possess a larger picture of life, which allows them to see right and wrong clearly and with less doubt” (Murdoch 1993, 325). A broad perspective can come either from the cultivation of imagination or from an expansive use of experience in life. Another philosopher, Sabina Lovibond, noted, “The use of moral concepts by individual speakers over time is grounded in an increasingly diversified capacity for participation in a variety of social practices” (Lovibond 1983, 32).

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