为了恢复道德视角在文学批评中的合法性,布斯在原则、方法和目的上重新定位了伦理批评。他采用修辞分析与伦理探究相结合的方法,实现了伦理批评在理性描述与道德评价两方面的协调统一。他重新界定了伦理批评的几个关键词,提出了共导、阅读的伦理以及批评多元主义等全新的理念,同时还复活并深化了“以书为友”的传统隐喻。但布斯在一些基本的理论前提和价值设想上仍未完全摆脱自由人文主义批评的影响,这让他的理论主张虽然听上去很美好,实际上却很空洞。
In order to restore the legitimacy of reading literature in moral terms, Booth relocates the principle, strategy, and aim of ethical criticism. With his practice that integrates rhetorical analysis and moral inquiry, he helps to realize a harmony between reasonable description and moral judgment in ethical criticism. He redefines a lot of key words of ethical criticism, creates several new terns and conceptions such as conduction, ethics of reading, and critical pluralism, while resurrecting the traditional metaphor of friendship with books. His theory, however, is void in actuality though it sounds noble, because he has not casted off the influence of liberal humanism on his premises and moral ideals.