The Beauty That Moral Courage Creates

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Such courage and self-sacrifice toward kin can certainly be inspiring, but moral beauty is most striking in acts of goodness toward others with whom one does not have obvious ties, exhibiting a degree of altruism that is clearly contrary to one’s individual interests. This occurs when a person helps another for no reason at all, forgives someone who truly does not deserve it, or—in the most extreme circumstances—gives up their life for a stranger. Witnessing this kind of moral beauty elicits what the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls “moral elevation,” which is experienced both psychologically and neurologically. Indeed, researchers writing in the journal Brain Research have identified specific areas of the brain that are stimulated by moral beauty.

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