Art, emotion and ethics / Berys Gaut.
Material type:
TextPublication details: Oxford ; New York ; Oxford University Press, 2009.Edition: Pbk. [ed.]Description: viii, 269 p. : ill. ; 24 cmISBN: - 019957152X (pbk.)
- 9780199571529 (pbk.)
- 170 GAU
| Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Loan | LSAD Library Main Collection | 170 GAU (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 39002100424390 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Art, Emotion and Ethics is a systematic investigation of the relation of art to morality, a topic that has been of central and recurring interest to the philosophy of art since Plato. Berys Gaut explores the various positions that have been taken in this debate, and argues that an artwork is always aesthetically flawed insofar as it possesses a moral defect that is aesthetically relevant. Three main arguments are developed for this view; these involve showing how moral goodness is itself a kind of beauty, that artworks can teach us about morality and that this is often an aesthetic merit in them, and that our emotional responses to works of art are properly guided in part by moral considerations. Art, Emotion and Ethics also contains detailed interpretations of a wide range of artworks, including Rembrandt's Bathsheba and Nabokov's Lolita, which show that ethical criticism can yield rich and plausible accounts of individual works. Gaut develops a new theory of the nature of aesthetic value, explores how art can teach us about the world and what we morally ought to do by guiding our imaginings, and argues that we can have genuine emotions towards people and events that we know are merely fictional. Characterised by its clarity and sustained argument, this book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the relation of art to morality.
The long debate -- Aesthetics and ethics : basic concepts -- A conceptual map -- Autonomism -- Artistic and critical practices -- Questions of character -- The cognitive argument : the epistemic claim -- The cognitive argument : the aesthetic claim -- Emotion and imagination -- The merited response argument.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Acknowledgements (p. ix)
- List of Illustrations (p. x)
- 1 The Long Debate (p. 1)
- 1.1 The Controversies (p. 1)
- 1.2 Disentangling the Issues (p. 6)
- 1.3 A Thematic Overview (p. 9)
- 1.4 Two Bathshebas (p. 14)
- 2 Aesthetics and Ethics: Basic Concepts (p. 26)
- 2.1 The Puzzle of the Aesthetic (p. 26)
- 2.2 The Aesthetic and the Artistic (p. 34)
- 2.3 The Concept of the Ethical (p. 41)
- 3 A Conceptual Map (p. 49)
- 3.1 Options in the Debate (p. 49)
- 3.2 Pro tanto Principles (p. 57)
- 4 Autonomism (p. 67)
- 4.1 Radical Autonomism and Artistic Acts (p. 67)
- 4.2 Moderate Autonomism (p. 76)
- 4.3 Aesthetic Relevance (p. 82)
- 5 Artistic and Critical Practices (p. 90)
- 5.1 Artists' Ambitions (p. 92)
- 5.2 Criticism (p. 95)
- 6 Questions of Character (p. 107)
- 6.1 Artworks and Friends (p. 109)
- 6.2 Moral Beauty (p. 114)
- 6.3 Moral Beauty and Works of Art (p. 127)
- 7 The Cognitive Argument: The Epistemic Claim (p. 133)
- 7.1 Formulating Aesthetic Cognitivism (p. 136)
- 7.2 Sources of Knowledge (p. 141)
- 7.3 How to Learn from Imagination (p. 147)
- 7.4 Imagination and Ethical Learning (p. 157)
- 8 The Cognitive Argument: The Aesthetic Claim (p. 165)
- 8.1 Arguing for the Aesthetic Claim (p. 165)
- 8.2 Autonomist and Contextualist Objections (p. 172)
- 8.3 Techniques and Strategies (p. 186)
- 8.4 Lolita (p. 194)
- 9 Emotion and Imagination (p. 203)
- 9.1 The Importance of Emotional Realism (p. 203)
- 9.2 The Possibility of Fiction-Directed Emotions (p. 208)
- 9.3 The Rationality of Fiction-Directed Emotions (p. 216)
- 10 The Merited Response Argument (p. 227)
- 10.1 Versions of the Argument (p. 227)
- 10.2 Objections and Replies (p. 234)
- 10.3 Humour (p. 242)
- 10.4 Conclusion (p. 251)
- Bibliography (p. 253)
- Index (p. 263)