Aesthetic Investigations (E-Journal, Dutch Association of Aesthetics)
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The Vanity of Small Differences: Empirical Studies of Extrinsic Factors and Artistic Value
No full textTo what extent are factors that are extrinsic to the artwork relevant to judgements of artistic value? One might approach this question using traditional philosophical methods, but one can also approach it using empirical methods; that is, by doing experimental philosophical aesthetics. This paper provides an example of the latter approach. We report two empirical studies that examine the significance of three sorts of extrinsic factors for judgements of artistic value: the causal-historical factor of contagion, the ontological factor of uniqueness, and the contextual factor of appreciative environment.
We explore the context of appreciation by performing studies in a museum as well as the lab. We found that contagion made a difference in both settings. However, uniqueness only made a difference in the lab setting, but not in the museum. This suggests that the context of appreciation may make a difference to judgements of artistic value. Of broader significance, these studies show the value of experimental philosophical aesthetics and the value of doing in situ empirical research on art
Lost in Intensity: Is there an empirical solution to the quasi-emotions debate?
Full text linkContrary to the emotions we feel in everyday contexts, the emotions we feel for fictional characters do not seem to require a belief in the existence of their object. This observation has given birth to a famous philosophical paradox (the ‘paradox of fiction’), and has led some philosophers to claim that the emotions we feel for fictional characters are not genuine emotions but rather “quasi-emotions”. Since then, the existence of quasi-emotions has been a hotly debated issue. Recently, philosophers and psychologists have proposed to solve this debate by using empirical methods and experimentally studying differences between ‘real’ and ‘fictional’ emotions. In this paper, our goal is to assess the success of these attempts. We begin by surveying the existing empirical literature and stressing the methodological problems that plague most studies that might seem relevant to the debate, before focusing on recent studies that avoid this pitfall. We then argue that, due to conceptual problems, these studies fail to be relevant to the philosophical debate and emphasise new directions for future empirical research on the topic
How Should Contextual Matters Figure into Art Evaluations?
Full text linkSuppose that the case has been made that evaluations of the artistic merit of an object or an event should include matters that are outside the scope of the purely formal. Accounts of why contextual matters should be relevant to art evaluation have been offered, and I would like to explore what comes next, that is, how contextual matters should be considered when it comes to the evaluation of art objects and events
Sensus and Dissensus Communis: The Comedy of Democracy (Following Cavell)
Full text linkThe thesis of the article is that within the framework of Western culture the cinematic comedy again and again can be seen as an aesthetic form where passions for democracy take their way. Following Cavell, philosophy, first, is as a matter of the "human voice" which is, in reference to Kant\u27s third Critique, a "universal voice". The aesthetic judgement insofar is a model of philosophical and, secondly, of democratic judgement. For in Kant, arguing about aesthetic matters means facilitating the communitarisation of confrontation. "Common sense" (sensus communis) is the political term Kant offers for this. Since this term, thirdly, has recently again been appropriated by populist semantics, it is important to stress a radically democratic, with Cavell: a romantic conception of democracy, and to this conception, fourth, the art form of comedy corresponds. Comedy and democracy both centre around "the common, the familiar, the low", and in laughter give this human-social sphere both an anarchic-democratic level of meaning and a certain, humorous self-reflection. The movie Adam\u27s Rib finally works as an example for this
Aesthetic normativity and suitable prompting
Full text linkThis Editor\u27s column summarises some of the insights I got from Richard Wollheim over the years, and from a recent Teams-chat with students in my class. Most notably: the role of suitable prompting in aesthetic normativity. In a sense, these insights help me understand this remark from Wittgenstein: `The existence of the experimental method makes us think we have the means of solving the problems which trouble us; though problem and method pass one another by.\u27 (Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 232e)
Mourning the Loss of the Ordinary. A Cavellian Reading of Ozu’s "Late Spring"
Full text linkThis paper offers a reading of Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring (Banshun, 1949) focusing on its examination of the ordinary: its conditions, its structure, its dynamics, and its fragility. This reading is articulated by juxtaposing some of Stanley Cavell’s main insights concerning modern skepticism and its threat to the ordinary and their corresponding expressions in a series of representative sequences from Ozu’s film. In both cases the notion of mourning plays a central role. I close by establishing one additional parallel between Cavell’s and Late Spring’s interpretations of the ordinary, focusing on the absence of a wedding ceremony at the end of Ozu’s film
Bence Nanay, Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016
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With Friends Like These… or: How Not to Respond to the Imposition Objection
Full text linkMany analytically trained philosophers argue that for a movie to do philosophy it must contain arguments, or develop thought experiments, or provide counterexamples, otherwise whatever philosophy might seem to be in it is just the viewer\u27s projection. Most of the analytic responses to what Tom Wartenburg calls the “the imposition objection” (IO), including his own, share an assumption I argue is unfounded, namely, that the traditional philosophical text is the standard by which we should judge the philosophical status of anything, including movies. I argue that tethering movies’ philosophy bona fides to standard philosophical works actually invites IO, absent a known philosophically minded creator behind the production. Accepting the argument-centric written text as the standard also begs the question about the nature of philosophy, and discounts (or worse) the philosophical powers of movies and other media; such a position also impoverishes the many and complex ways philosophy deepens our understanding of the world, of others, and of ourselves. I offer a liberating example in my account of Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia on its own philosophical terms
Introduction to Empirical Aesthetics
No full textIntroduction by the guest editor to the special issue on empirical aesthetics
Mother-Daughter Identity Constructs in "Lady Snowblood" and "Carrie"
Full text linkBoth Carrie (1976) and Lady Snowblood (1973) have each received significant attention in critical film theory and philosophical works. However, when considered with the aim of drawing comparisons rather than focusing on established theoretical concerns that prevent or at least obfuscate such a pairing, both films betray the same approach to identity construction with respect to the main female characters. This approach involves the reliance on a narrative construct in which a repressive condition is placed upon the leading women in these films, a condition that, when critically evaluated, may have more widespread implications for how we ought to represent women in film in general. While the interpretations presented here and the value that they hold may overlap with claims already made about such films in non-comparative contexts, the analysis here may serve to foreground certain structural features that make these films warrant renewed attention due to the underlying assumptions implicit in their development about the critical role of a mother with respect to how a daughter defines her own identity