Not Just Cause and Effect: Resituating Martha Nussbaum’s Defense of Novels as Moral Philosophy in a Hermeneutical Framework

This article brings Martha Nussbaum’s defense of novels as contributors to moral philosophy into conversation with Lambert Zuidervaart’s theories of artistic truth and ethical responsibility in art and society. Nussbaum’s defense of novels as moral philosophy emphasizes the integrality of form and content and is founded on her understanding of normativity as immanent and revisable, rather than transcendent and eternal. Her discussion of fiction, however, focuses on the “impact” of reading novels on the individual, which may seem to imply a direct, causal connection between reading and becoming a better person. In contrast, Zuidervaart argues that art, including literature, is thoroughly hermeneutical. This means that a causal model is not capable of successfully framing the relationship between literature and moral philosophy. A thoroughly articulated hermeneutical model for the interaction between fiction and normativity would make Nussbaum’s theory more convincing.