Books are important (encourage your kids to read)

How does one justify one’s existence and make it worthwhile for oneself and others? A question we all should seek an answer to in this life. Well it’s been said that the answer is …. Art, Love and the pursuit of knowledge!! Let me talk about the art side on this post, more specifically the narrative arts, this is primarily books but also movies and theatre, both of which I have reviewed in previous posts which I have also done with certain choice books. So what do books (movies and theatre) have to do with moral life? The answer is that the acquaintance with literature (and the arts) enlarge ones insight into the human condition, and thus serves as a powerful adjunct to promoting sympathies and empathies which are the necessary basis for morality. The argument is as follows, wee jimmy will act in ways which recognise, and are sensitive to wee Jennies interests, only if he is able to grasp how things are for wee Jennie, and understands why the matter to her; and, further, recognises that things being that wat for Jennie makes a claim on some of his own attitudes and behaviours. Any Jimmy’s gaining access to Jennies perspective on life this demands a degree of sympathy. But when Jennie’s interests and aims lie outside the normal range of Jimmy’s experience his ability to sympathise Jennie’s concerns enough to be considerate about them in relevant ways, will require his to see beyond his normal usual range. Most people can learn about the needs and interests of others by extrapolating from their own experiences and from their observations from people around them, but if these were the only resources for insight, the scope of an individual’s sympathies would be limited. And this is were narrative arts are important. Exposure to narrative arts overcomes this limitation; Its enormously widens an attentive vicariously, or as a fly on the wall witness- to see into lives, conditions and experiences which we may never encounter in practice. The extension and education of sympathies is therefor the basis for richer moral experiences and more refined capacity for moral response.