Overview

Art, Emotion and Ethics is a systematic investigation of the relation of art to morality, a topic that has been of central and recurring interest to the philosophy of art since Plato. Berys Gaut explores the various positions that have been taken in this debate, and argues that an artwork is always aesthetically flawed insofar as it possesses a moral defect that is aesthetically relevant. Three main arguments are developed for this view; these involve showing how moral goodness is itself a kind of beauty, that artworks can teach us about morality and that this is under certain conditions an aesthetic merit in them, and that our emotional responses to works of art are properly guided in part by moral considerations.Art, Emotion and Ethics also contains detailed interpretations of a wide range of artworks, including Rembrandt's Bathsheba and Nabokov's Lolita, which show that ethical criticism can yield rich and plausible accounts of individual works. Gaut develops a new theory of the nature of aesthetic value, explores how art can teach us about the world and what we morally ought to do by guiding our imaginings, and argues that we can have genuine emotions towards people and events that we know are merely fictional.Characterised by its clarity and sustained argument, this book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the relation of art to morality.

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9780199263219

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Reviews

A lucid and elegant investigation of the relationship between the ethical and the aesthetic evaluation of works of art... Insightful and elegant... That is also why reading Art, Emotion and Etjics should elicit both careful interest and great pleasure, both of which it certainly merits. Alessandro Giovanelli Mind 119 an impressive, sustained defence of ethicism... This is a very satisfying, clearly and forcefully argued book... I recommend the book especially to those who hold conflicting views... Gaut here sets a very high standard for the articulation and defence of a view, and for reflection on the relation of the ethical to the aesthetic overall, and rival views have yet to come close to meeting this standard. Eileen John, British Journal of Aesthetics there is much here to admire. Among the strengths of the work are the clarity and sophistication of Gaut's arguments...I consider this an important book that deserves to be widely read and discussed. Daniel Jacobson, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

A lucid and elegant investigation of the relationship between the ethical and the aesthetic evaluation of works of art... Insightful and elegant... That is also why reading Art, Emotion and Etjics should elicit both careful interest and great pleasure, both of which it certainly merits. Alessandro Giovanelli Mind 119 an impressive, sustained defence of ethicism... This is a very satisfying, clearly and forcefully argued book... I recommend the book especially to those who hold conflicting views... Gaut here sets a very high standard for the articulation and defence of a view, and for reflection on the relation of the ethical to the aesthetic overall, and rival views have yet to come close to meeting this standard. Eileen John, British Journal of Aesthetics there is much here to admire. Among the strengths of the work are the clarity and sophistication of Gaut's arguments...I consider this an important book that deserves to be widely read and discussed. Daniel Jacobson, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

an impressive, sustained defence of ethicism... This is a very satisfying, clearly and forcefully argued book... I recommend the book especially to those who hold conflicting views... Gaut here sets a very high standard for the articulation and defence of a view, and for reflection on the relation of the ethical to the aesthetic overall, and rival views have yet to come close to meeting this standard. Eileen John, British Journal of Aesthetics there is much here to admire. Among the strengths of the work are the clarity and sophistication of Gaut's arguments...I consider this an important book that deserves to be widely read and discussed. Daniel Jacobson, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Author Information

Berys Gaut is Reader in Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews.

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