Dogma persists in aesthetic discourse in the assumptions that art consists primarily of objects, that these objects possess a special status, and that they must be regarded in a unique way. I claim that they are assumptive and misleading, while Carson opposes this by supporting the dogmas. I argue that Carlson begs the question (the relevance of…[Read more]

Traditional attempts to ground ethics may be seen to be governed by the intent to preserve established values even when they seem to be most rational and critical. This essay probes the connections of some of the most prominent justifications of ethical theories to the prevailing morality of the dominant social order. This claim is examined in…[Read more]

The sensuousness of perception leads us to recognize the role of the senses in aesthetic experience. Aesthetics has traditionally admitted the sensuous through sight and hearing but has excluded the contact senses of taste, smell, and especially touch. These contact senses challenge the place in traditional aesthetics of distance and…[Read more]

This is a comment on Marcia Eaton’s article interpreting Joseph Brodsky’s claim that “aesthetics is the mother of ethics.” Eaton challenges this claiming that they are conceptually interdependent, neither coming first. While Eton wishes to retain the metaphor, I argue in favor of Brodsky’s position, giving ethics priority.

Difficulties in dealing with values follow from the failure to distinguish clearly between values as characteristic kinds of human experiences and value judgments as statements about such kinds of experiences. Values originate in the basic conditions under which human beings conduct their lives at different times and places. Value judgments are…[Read more]

The assessment of normative issues must begin by examining basic human needs. Judgments do not create values but only recognize them. Such factual knowledge enables us to determine policy and guide actions, and the human sciences can contribute by identifying such structural universals. This can underlie efforts to establish moral beliefs and…[Read more]

The literary representation of Chopin in the period leading to and through early 20th-century modernism shows a contradiction between two expressive identities: a compound of refinement, delicacy, and sensitivity, the expression of a beautiful soul too good for this world, and a ravenous, violent force of desire that sooner or later takes the form…[Read more]