Morality & Imagination

by Yi-Fu Tuan

Can the individual and society be both moral and imaginative? In Western society the moral person tends to be regarded as either simple and naive or narrow and bigoted. In contrast, the imaginative person is looked on as someone not bound by the customs of the group and therefore likely to be fanciful and out of touch with reality.

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1989

About the author

Fu Tuan (Traditional Chinese: 段義孚, born 5 December 1930) is a Chinese-U.S. geographer.
Tuan was born in 1930 in Tientsin, China. He was the son of a rich oligarch and was part of the top class in the Republic of China. Tuan attended University College, London, but graduated from the University of Oxford with a B.A. and M.A. in 1951 and 1955 respectively. From there he went to California to continue his geographic education. He received his Ph.D. in 1957 from the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

[Sandra]

Morality and Imaginaton is the 5th book of Tuan's I have read and I am weakened as usual by the gentle goodness as much as by the powerful intellect of this aging scholar. He offers us a continuum from what in today's world we can read as right vs. left, summarizing that good is ineffable, a powerful lure, a safe-guard against intolerance and moral stasis. Progress (toward good), he tells us, is endlessly possible.