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Понтоппидан, Мария Московский государственный университет им. М.В. Ломоносова
Kurtz and Plotinus: The Gang of Virtue
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Keywords:
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Plotinus, Plato
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The article brings together Plotinian ethics and Joseph Conrad’s novella
Heart of darkness, reading the ethical concerns of the latter as an implicit criticism of the Plotinian ethical ideal of relinquishing the human condition in favour of “becoming God”. The novella’s central character, Kurtz, and his dark fate, may be interpreted as a warning against dangers attached to such an ideal. Another purpose of the article is to show how Conrad, though rejecting belief in an immaterial reality, yet shares a“Platonic temperament”; and that his approach to ethics - like that of Plotinus - is purely virtue ethical (as opposed to deontological or utilitarian). This is atypical for a nineteenth century thinker.
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