Mirrors to One Another: Emotion and Value in Jane Austen and David Hume

A compelling exploration of the convergence of Jane Austen’s literary themes and characters with David Hume’s views on morality and human nature.

• Argues that the normative perspectives endorsed in Jane Austen's novels are best characterized in terms of a Humean approach, and that the merits of Hume's account of ethical, aesthetic and epistemic virtue are vividly illustrated by Austen's writing.
• Illustrates how Hume and Austen complement one another, each providing a lens that allows us to expand and elaborate on the ideas of the other
• Proposes that literature may serve as a thought experiment, articulating hypothetical cases which allow the reader to test her moral intuitions
• Contributes to ongoing debates on the philosophy of literature, ethics, and emotion