Abstract

Much is made by our contemporary moral guides--ethicists and applied ethicists, as well as news commentators and talk-show hosts--of the notion of the "quality of life". Little is made by them, however, of the notion of "quality". This is because recent dramatic changes in technology, economy and political practice have obscured the standards to which we appeal when making moral decisions. I claim in the first part of the thesis that aesthetic judgements about household objects--demonstrated most clearly in three distinctly personal activities: cooking, dressing, and interior decoration --are fundamental to moral reasoning. This claim is supported by readings in moral philosophy. ;It follows that technological, economic, and political innovations which affect the quality of these sorts of objects will also affect moral reasoning. That this has occurred, and that Modernity have affected our moral thinking adversely, is demonstrated in a historical investigation of the interdependence of technology, economics, home life and moral philosophy. These investigations show that the current crises of morality, about which much has been made of late, are attributable in part to the deteriorating aesthetic quality of our food, clothes, and homes, and to the declining attention given to them by our intellectuals. This debasement of what I call the "domestic aesthetic" derives, not from any inherent unworthiness of these activities as objects of philosophical contemplation, but from historical changes in the nature, notions, and perceived purposes of various kinds of work