ABSTRACT
A number of authors have argued that reading fiction can improve our moral capacities. Martha Nussbaum has claimed both that exposure to fiction can play a significant role in children’s moral development and that consuming fiction can enhance adults’ moral capacities. According to Nussbaum, both of these effects are mediated by fiction’s positive impact on the capacity for empathy. In this chapter I assess the empirical support for both of these claims and draw connections between emotional responses to fiction and recent work on imagination and imitation. I argue that fiction provides opportunities to practice empathetic responses and thereby develop the capacity for empathy in adults. Following work by Prinz, I also argue that fiction may play a role in the child’s moral development. However, it is apparent that the imitative mechanisms that plausibly underlie fiction’s capacity to enhance empathetic responses may also be responsible for the impact of violent media on aggressive behavior. Identifying the properties of fictions that facilitate empathetic development and those that facilitate aggressive behavior are important issues for future research.
