Moralism and Aetheticism: On Carlos Pereda’s Patologías del juicio: Un ensayo sobre literatura, moral y estética nómada

Abstract

Aestheticism and moralism are two vices in which aesthetic or moral values are overrated in situations where other values are at stake and should also be taken into account, but are underrated. Carlos Pereda maintains that they are pathologies of judgment and argues that literature has been the victim of different variants of these vices. To do this, he distinguishes between different forms of aestheticism and moralism, and analyzes how some of them have implications at the semantic and communication levels. Pereda proposes a “reflective model” that counteracts the simplification that these pathologies represent. In this note, I critically examine Pereda’s theory and propose other ways that the analysis of aestheticism and moralism can take.