Ethical Detective : Moral Philosophy and Detective Fiction

This book works within the neo-Aristotelian ethical framework to make the case that moral philosophers ought to see detective fiction as a source of ethical insight and as a tool to spark the moral imagination. It also critiques contemporary moral philosophy and proposes what autonomy might look like if understood in neo-Aristotelian terms.

Detective fiction and philosophy¾moral philosophy in particular¾may seem like an odd combination. Working within the framework offered by neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics, this book makes the case that moral philosophers ought to take murder mysteries seriously, seeing them as a source of ethical insight, and as a tool that can be used to spark the ethical imagination. Detective fiction is a literary genre that asks readers to consider questions of good and evil, justice and injustice, virtue and vice, and is, consequently, a profoundly and inescapably ethical genre. Moreover, in the figure of the detective, readers are presented with an accessible role model who demonstrates the virtues of honesty, courage, and a commitment to justice that are required by those who want to live well as a virtue ethicist would understand it. This book also offers a critique of contemporary moral philosophy, and considers what features a neo-Aristotelian conception of autonomy might display.