Event Title
On Art, Morality, and the Subject: Revisiting the Relation between Ethics and Aesthetics
Location
Tacoma, Washington
Event Website
http://webspace.pugetsound.edu/facultypages/atubert/ConferenceSchedule2016.htm
Start Date
12-2-2016 11:00 AM
End Date
12-2-2016 11:50 AM
Description
Based on a Kantian conception of aesthetic judgments, this paper explores the conflict between ethics and aesthetics in valuations of art. In it, I argue for the insufficiency of the three existing camps in the philosophical literature on the question of whether ethics do and/or should influence aesthetic judgments of art. While Autonomism says never, Moralism always, and Moderate Moralism sometimes, I aim to show that they are all deficient because they lack due consideration for subjective interest, a key link between ethics and aesthetics. The argument proceeds with a critical look at two articles: Posner’s Against Ethical Criticism and Carroll’s Moderate Moralism, which support Autonomism and Moderate Moralism respectively. I conclude that, due to their being linked by subjective interest, both ethics and aesthetics inform art valuations, and yet are opposites that exclude each other. The role of an ethical and/or aesthetic judgment of art is wholly and solely dependent upon the level of subjective interest that exists between an audience and a work of art.
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Type
event
Included in
On Art, Morality, and the Subject: Revisiting the Relation between Ethics and Aesthetics
Tacoma, Washington
Based on a Kantian conception of aesthetic judgments, this paper explores the conflict between ethics and aesthetics in valuations of art. In it, I argue for the insufficiency of the three existing camps in the philosophical literature on the question of whether ethics do and/or should influence aesthetic judgments of art. While Autonomism says never, Moralism always, and Moderate Moralism sometimes, I aim to show that they are all deficient because they lack due consideration for subjective interest, a key link between ethics and aesthetics. The argument proceeds with a critical look at two articles: Posner’s Against Ethical Criticism and Carroll’s Moderate Moralism, which support Autonomism and Moderate Moralism respectively. I conclude that, due to their being linked by subjective interest, both ethics and aesthetics inform art valuations, and yet are opposites that exclude each other. The role of an ethical and/or aesthetic judgment of art is wholly and solely dependent upon the level of subjective interest that exists between an audience and a work of art.
https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/psupc/psupc2016/Friday/6