MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT NOVEL

Abstract

This study explores the ways Enlightenment novels combine ethical inquiry with aesthetic experience to influence readers’ moral understanding. Authors of the period employed narrative structure, emotional depth, and character portrayal to reflect on ideas such as virtue, rationality, individual freedom, and human progress. By blending reason with imaginative engagement, the Enlightenment novel served as both a source of moral contemplation and artistic enjoyment. The paper argues that the novel’s aesthetic features-its descriptive style, narrative perspective, and emotional resonance-play a crucial role in conveying moral lessons, enabling readers to grasp ethical ideas not only through logic but through felt experience. In this way, the Enlightenment novel functions as a genre where artistic pleasure and moral education operate together to foster deeper ethical awareness.