Description
This volume is about how and whether art can be morally bad (or morally good). Politicians, media pundits, and others frequently complain that particular works of art are morally dangerous, or, sometimes, that particular works are morally edifying (the "great works" of literature, for example). But little attention is often given to the question of what makes art morally good in the first place. This comprehensive volume of forty-five new essays explores a wide variety of historical and theoretical perspectives, looking at different art forms and different problems.Each section of the volume samples a mix of topics that have been widely discussed alongside those that have been less noticed by philosophers. What emerges is a sense of the great variety of different problems and approaches as well as some recurring and overlapping themes.The essays in this volume put forth a deliberate effort to stretch beyond some of the debates and problems most familiar to Anglophone philosophers. Familiar topics and positions have been placed side by side in the volume with new and neglected ones, sometimes suggesting surprising connections and conflicts. The volume is divided into four sections: Historical Perspectives, Theoretical Approaches, Individual Arts, and Problems. Chapters in "Historical Perspectives" cover significant historical and cultural periods in which philosophical debates about ethics and art became salient, from ancient Greece and China to Japan, the Harlem Renaissance, and beyond. These chapters show the wide variety of different concrete practices that were associated with the idea of "art," as well as the great range of approaches to thinking about what constitutes an "ethical" concern. The section on "Theoretical Approaches" takes up questions about the relationship between moral and aesthetic evaluation, moral theories, and the familiar debate between "moralists," "autonomists," and others. The section on "Individual Arts" considers how moral questions arise in distinctive ways for different art forms, including traditional arts such as music, literature, and painting, and newer art forms such as video games. The final section, "Problems," takes up a variety of special ethical problems that arise in the arts, such as forgery, cultural appropriation, and moral learning.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: IntroductionJames HaroldPart I: Historical Perspectives on Ethics and ArtChapter 2: Ethics and the Arts in Early ChinaEric L. HuttonChapter 3: Ancient Greek Philosophers on Art and Ethics: How Can Immoral Art be Ethically Beneficial?Pierre DestréeChapter 4: Art and Ethics in IslamOliver LeamanChapter 5: Ethically-Grounded Nature of Japanese Aesthetic SensibilityYuriko SaitoChapter 6: Art, Ethics, and Value in the Modern Aesthetic TraditionTimothy M. CostelloeChapter 7: The Knowledge that Joins Ethics to Art in Yorùbá CultureBarry HallenChapter 8: Art and Ethics in India in the Nineteenth and Twentieth CenturiesNalini Bhushan and Arvind Krishna MehrotraChapter 9: Art and Ethics: FormalismMichalle GalChapter 10: Harlem Renaissance: An Interpretation of Racialized Art and EthicsJacoby Adeshi Carter and Sheena Michele MasonChapter 11: Evolution of Art and Moral Concerns in New China: From Mao Zedong's Yenan Talks to Xi Jinping's Speech on Artistic PracticeEva Kit Wah ManPart II: Theoretical Approaches to Ethics and ArtChapter 12: Meta-ethics and Meta-aestheticsAlex KingChapter 13: Distinguishing between Ethics and AestheticsMoonyoung SongChapter 14: Relativism and the Ethical Criticism of ArtTed NannicelliChapter 15: Kantian Approaches to Ethical Judgment of ArtworksSandra ShapshayChapter 16: Consequentialist Approaches to Ethical Judgment of ArtworksScott WoodcockChapter 17: Virtue Aesthetics, Art, and EthicsNancy E. SnowChapter 18: Feminism, Ethics, and ArtAmy MullinChapter 19: AutonomismNils-Hennes StearChapter 20: MoralismNoël CarrollChapter 21: Immoralism and ContextualismDaniel JacobsonChapter 22: AestheticismBecca RothfeldPart III: Ethical Issues in Individual ArtsChapter 23: PaintingElisabeth SchellekensChapter 24: Ethics and LiteraturePeter LamarqueChapter 25: FilmCarl PlantingaChapter 26: Ethics and MusicKathleen HigginsChapter 27: Some Moral Features of Theatrical ArtJames R. HamiltonChapter 28: Dance EthicsAili WhalenChapter 29: ArchitectureSaul FisherChapter 30: Ethics and Video GamesChristopher BartelChapter 31: Art and Pornography: Ethical IssuesA.W. EatonChapter 32: Humor EthicsPaul ButterfieldChapter 33: Monuments and Memorials: Ethics Writ LargeJeanette Bicknell, Jennifer Judkins, and Carolyn KorsmeyerChapter 34: Ethical Issues in Internet Culture and New MediaAnthony CrossPart IV: Ethical Problems in the ArtsChapter 35: Ethics of Artistic AuthorshipKaren GoverChapter 36: Group Agency, Alienation, and Public ArtMary Beth WillardChapter 37: Immoral ArtistsErich Hatala MatthesChapter 38: Cultural AppropriationC. Thi Nguyen and Matthew StrohlChapter 39: ForgeryDarren Hudson HickChapter 40: Art, Ethics, and VandalismSondra BacharachChapter 41: Censorship and Selective Support for the ArtsBrian SoucekChapter 42: Art, Race, and RacismAdriana Clavel-VázquezChapter 43: Representation, Identity, and Ethics in ArtPaul C. TaylorChapter 44: Ethics and ImaginationJoy Shim and Shen-yi LiaoChapter 45: Moral Learning from ArtEileen John
