Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T12:58:50.272Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beauty, the social network1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Dominic McIver Lopes
Dominic McIver Lopes*
Affiliation:
UBC Philosophy, Vancouver, Canada
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Aesthetic values give agents reasons to perform not only acts of contemplation, but also acts like editing, collecting, and conserving. Moreover, aesthetic agents rarely operate solo: they conduct their business as integral members of networks of other aesthetic agents. The consensus theory of aesthetic value, namely that an item’s aesthetic value is its power to evoke a finally valuable experience in a suitable spectator, can explain neither the range of acts performed by aesthetic agents nor the social contexts in which they operate. This paper proposes a new theory of aesthetic value specifically to explain facts about the sociality of aesthetic agents.

Keywords

Aestheticbeautynormativityvaluesocial
Type
Distinguished Lecture
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , 2017 , pp. 437 - 453
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

A version of this paper was presented as the Canadian Journal of Philosophy Distinguished Lecture at the 2016 Canadian Philosophical Association. The support of the John Solomon Guggenheim Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada is gratefully acknowledged.

References

Acord, Sophia Krzys, and DeNora, Tia. 2008. “Culture and the Arts: From Art Worlds to Arts-in-Action.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 619 (1): 223–237. 10.1177/0002716208318634CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baxandall, Michael. 1985. Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Beardsley, Monroe. 1969. “Aesthetic Experience Regained.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 28 (1): 3–11. 10.2307/428903CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beardsley, Monroe. 1970. “The Aesthetic Point of View.” Metaphilosophy 1: 39–58. 10.1111/meta.1970.1.issue-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beardsley, Monroe. 1979. “In Defense of Aesthetic Value.” Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 52: 723–749. 10.2307/3131382CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beardsley, Monroe. 1982. “Aesthetic Experience.” In The Aesthetic Point of View, 285–297. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Becker, Howard S. 2008. Art Worlds. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bicchieri, Cristina. 2006. The Grammar of Society: The Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Translated by Nice, Richard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511812507CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Nice, Richard. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Brooks, David. 1993. “Taste, Virtue, and Class.” In Virtue and Taste: Essays on Politics, Ethics, and Aesthetics in Memory of Flint Schier, edited by Knowles, Dudley and Skorupski, John, 65–82. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Budd, Malcolm. 1995. Values of Art: Painting, Poetry, and Music. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Budd, Malcolm. 2008. “Aesthetic Essence.” In Aesthetic Experience, edited by Shusterman, Richard and Tomlin, Adele, 1–14. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Carroll, Noël. 2002. “Aesthetic Experience Revisited.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 42 (2): 145–168. 10.1093/bjaesthetics/42.2.145CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, James S. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Crisp, Roger. 2006. “Hedonism Reconsidered.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 73 (3): 619–645. 10.1111/j.1933-1592.2006.tb00551.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danto, Arthur C. 1964. “The Artworld.” The Journal of Philosophy 61 (19): 571–584. 10.2307/2022937CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickie, George. 1974. Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Dickie, George. 1988. Evaluating Art. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Eaton, Marcia Muelder. 1989. Aesthetics and the Good Life. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.Google Scholar
Egan, Andy. 2010. “Disputing about Taste.” In Disagreement, edited by Feldman, Richard and Warfield, Ted A., 247–286. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226078.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, Gary Alan, and Fields, Corey D.. 2008. “Culture and Microsociology: The Anthill and the Veldt.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 619: 130–148. 10.1177/0002716208320138CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fried, Michael. 1980. Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, Alan H. 1990. “Aesthetic Qualities and Aesthetic Value.” The Journal of Philosophy 87 (1): 23–37. 10.2307/2026797CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Alan H. 1995. Aesthetic Value. Boulder: Westview.Google Scholar
Goldman, Alan H. 2006. “The Experiential Account of Aesthetic Value.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 64 (3): 333–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, Nelson. [1968] 1976. Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. rev ed. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Gracyk, Theodore. 1990. “Having Bad Taste.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 30 (2): 117–131. 10.1093/bjaesthetics/30.2.117CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greco, John. 2010. Achieving Knowledge: A Virtue-theoretic Account of Epistemic Normativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511844645CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyer, Paul. 2005. “The Standard of Taste and the ‘Most Ardent Desire of Society’.” In Values of Beauty: Historical Essays in Aesthetics, 37–74. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511840876CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, David. 1739. A Treatise of Human Nature. London: John Noon.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1777. “Of the Standard of Taste.” In Four Dissertations, 227–249. London: Millar.Google Scholar
Iseminger, Gary. 2004. The Aesthetic Function of Art. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Helen. 1967. “The Use of ‘Good; Aesthetic Judgements.” In Aesthetic and Language, edited by Elton, William, 147–160. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Layton, Robert. 2011. “Aesthetics: The Approach from Social Anthropology.” In The Aesthetic Mind, edited by Schellekens, Elisabeth and Goldie, Peter, 208–222. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, Jerrold. 1992. “Pleasure and The Value of Works of Art.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 32 (4): 295–306. 10.1093/bjaesthetics/32.4.295CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, Jerrold. 2002. “Hume’s Standard of Taste: The Real Problem.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 60: 227–238. 10.1111/jaac.2002.60.issue-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, Jerrold. 2010. “Artistic Worth and Personal Taste.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68 (3): 225–233.Google Scholar
Levinson, Jerrold. 2016. “Toward an Adequate Conception of Aesthetic Experience.” In Aesthetic Pursuits, 28–16. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, C. I. 1946. An Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation. La Salle: Open Court.Google Scholar
Lewis, David K. 1969. Convention: A Philosophical Study. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lopes, Dominic Mc Iver. 2015. “Aesthetic Experts, Guides to Value.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 73 (3): 235–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopes, Dominic McIver. Forthcoming. Being for Beauty: Aesthetic Agency and Value.Google Scholar
Matthen, Mohan. 2015. “Play, Skill, and the Origins of Perceptual Art: Table 1.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 55 (2): 173–197. 10.1093/aesthj/ayu057CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthen, Mohan. 2017. “The Pleasure of Art.” Australasian Philosophical Review 1: 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melchionne, Kevin. 2010. “On the Old Saw “I know nothing about art but I know what I like”.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68 (2): 131–141. 10.1111/(ISSN)1540-6245CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Richard W. 1998. “Three Versions of Objectivity: Aesthetic, Moral, and Scientific.” In Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection, edited by Levinson, Jerrold, 26–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511663888CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, Adam. 2012. Bounded Thinking: Intellectual Virtues for Limited Agents. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199658534.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mothersill, Mary. 1984. Beauty Restored. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nehamas, Alexander. 2007. Only a Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ross, Sephanie. 2012. “Comparing and Sharing Taste: Reflections on Critical Advice.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70 (4): 363–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schelling, Thomas. 1960. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schier, Flint. 1986. “Hume and the Aesthetics of Agency.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 87: 121–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharpe, R. A. 2000. “The Empiricist Theory of Artistic Value.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 58 (4): 321–332. 10.2307/432178CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelley, James. 2010. “Against Value Empiricism in Aesthetics.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 88 (4): 707–720. 10.1080/00048400903207104CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slote, Michael A. 1971. “The Rationality of Aesthetic Value Judgments.” The Journal of Philosophy 68 (22): 821–839. 10.2307/2024652CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smiley, David. 2001. “Making the Modified Modern.” Perspecta 32: 39–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sosa, Ernest. 2007. A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199297023.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stang, Nicholas. 2012. “Artworks Are Not Valuable for Their Own Sakes.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70 (3): 271–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stecker, Robert. 1997. Artworks: Definition, Meaning, Value. University Park: Penn State University Press.Google Scholar
Stecker, Robert. 2006. “Aesthetic Experience and Aesthetic Value.” Philosophy Compass 1 (1): 1–10. 10.1111/phco.2006.1.issue-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strandberg, Caj. 2011. “A Structural Disanalogy between Aesthetic and Ethical Value Judgements.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 51 (1): 51–67. 10.1093/aesthj/ayq025CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, Judith Jarvis. 2008. Normativity. Chicago: Open Court.Google Scholar
Wallace, Jay. 2012. “Duties of Love.” Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 86: 175–198. 10.1111/j.1467-8349.2012.00213.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, Kendall. 1993. “How Marvelous! Toward a Theory of Aesthetic Value.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 51 (3): 499–510. 10.2307/431521CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy Koster, ed. 1983. Structure and Cognition in Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard. 1985. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Witkin, Robert, and DeNora, Tia. 1997. “Aesthetic Materials and Aesthetic Agency.” Newsletter of the Sociology of Culture 12 (1): 1–6.Google Scholar
Wolf, Susan. 2011. “Good-for-nothings.” Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 85 (2): 47–64.Google Scholar
Wollheim, Richard. [1968] 1980. Art and Its Objects. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zangwill, Nick. 1999. “Art and Audience.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 57 (3): 315–332. 10.2307/432197CrossRefGoogle Scholar