Edmund Burke for Our Time: Moral Imagination, Meaning, and Politics

4. Characteristics of a Moral Imagination

4 Characteristics of a Moral Imagination I n c h a pt e r 3 k e y m o r a l and epistemological ideas, including the concept of the moral imagination and its role, were developed from Burke’s thought. A healthy, stable, liberal society requires a people with a particular kind of character, and this requires that they possess moral imaginations of a particular type. That is, their imaginations must be the sort that contribute to the kinds of judgments and behaviors that make for good living within such a society, and that reinforce that society’s desirable norms. It has been shown that because our reason, our intuition, our feelings, and such all must operate within imaginative wholes that we create, the forms these wholes take have a profound effect on how we reason, how we intuit, and what we feel. Because we tend to think metaphorically, our understanding of reality is shaped strongly by symbols, and by associations we make among diverse elements. What is often called “moral education” or “political education” in academic discourse today can be seen, in large part, as the equipping of the moral imagination. The terms “moral education” and “political education” have varying uses, however. Burke would agree with the broad, descriptive usage of these terms, which tends to emphasize the experiential nature of such learning. He would likely have concerns about those who believe that morality or proper political behavior can simply be taught in the same manner in which one teaches, for example, the alphabet. Characteristics of a Moral Imagination 95 For Burke, people learn largely through imitation, through experience, and through the absorption of prejudices; while there is a potentially important role for deliberate tutelage, one cannot simply create sound character in this manner. Care, then, must be taken to identify the kinds of elements that for Burke would contribute to a well-equipped moral imagination. To identify these elements, it is necessary also to determine how he characterizes a desirable imaginative framework. Theater and Art as Moral Shapers In previous chapters Burke’s early concern about the effect of theater on morality and politics was mentioned. The morals of a nation, the first issue of the Reformer states, have a great dependence upon the “taste and writings” of its people. People are naturally imitative and learn primarily in this manner; as a result, the theater may have a great impact on how people behave. Interestingly, one of the works Burke reviewed for the Annual Register was A Letter from M. Rousseau of Geneva, to M. d’Alembert, of Paris, concerning the Effects of Theatrical Entertainments on the Manners of Mankind. Burke takes the opportunity to denigrate Rousseau, attributing to him “a splenetic disposition carried to misanthropy,” and stating that his treatments of “civilized society” and “learning” are likely to “lead by degrees to universal scepticism [sic].”1 Nonetheless, he gives this particular work a favorable review, and remarks on the importance of the topic. Burke’s interest in the impact of the theater did not fade over time. As has been seen, in the Reflections he remarks at one point about the theater’s role in moral education. Despite recognizing the potential for the theater to play a positive role, he is more often concerned about its negative effects. The second issue of the Reformer expresses concern about the characters whom a playwright “plainly proposes for Imitation.”2 In the third issue Burke remarks particularly on players who contribute to “Propagation of Vice, or what is near as bad, Folly, by their Manner of acting.”3 This remark repeats a concern expressed in the first issue regarding “Vice and Folly” going “round the Nation hand in hand.”4 Burke’s concern regarding portrayals of vice in the theater is readily understandable; his complaints regarding lewdness and “smutty Entendre” are echoed by critics of the media today. But why should “folly” be such a concern, and why does it travel “hand in hand” with vice? The Reformer makes clear that the objection is not to humor per se, but specifically to “folly” or “buffoonery.”5 Interestingly, it quickly becomes evident that what Burke is really most 96 E d m u n d B u r k e f o r O u r T i m e concerned about is the insertion of folly, buffoonery, entendre, and the like into venerable plays by great...