Six papers delivered at a conference organzied at University of Maryland, College Park, Apr. 1994.
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
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Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-323) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
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Introduction : aesthetics and ethics / Jerrold Levinson -- Three versions of objectivity : aesthetic, moral, and scientific / Richard W. Miller -- Aesthetic value, moral value, and the ambitions of naturalism / Peter Railton -- On consistency in one's personal aesthetics / Ted Cohen -- Art, narrative, and moral understanding / Noël Carroll -- Realism of character and the value of fiction / Gregory Currie -- The ethical criticism of art / Berys Gaut -- How bad can good art be? / Karen Hanson -- Beauty and evil : the case of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the will / Mary Devereaux -- The naked truth / Arthur C. Danto -- Aesthetic derogation : hate speech, pornography, and aesthetic contexts / Lynne Tirrell.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
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This major collection of new essays stands at the border of aesthetics and ethics and deals with charged issues of practical import: art and morality, the ethics of taste, censorship, and the objectivity of aesthetic judgments. As such its potential interest is by no means confined to professional philosophers; it should also appeal to art historians and critics, literary theorists, and students of film and the media. Prominent philosophers in both aesthetics and ethics tackle a wide array of issues. Some of the questions explored include: Can art be morally enlightening and, if so, how? If a work of art is morally better, does that make it better as art? Is morally deficient art to be shunned or even censored? Do subjects of artworks have rights as to how they are represented? Do artists have duties as artists and duties as human beings and, if so, to whom? How much tension is there between the demands of art and the demands of life? Is there such a thing as a personal aesthetic and, if so, what justification does it stand in need of? How much agreement can we reasonably expect to achieve in ethical and aesthetic matters as compared with scientific ones?