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3210Visceral Values: Aurel Kolnai on DisgustIn Barry Smith & Carolyn Korsmeyer (eds.), Aurel Kolnai's On Disgust, Open Court Publishing Company. pp. 1-23. 2004.In 1929 when Aurel Kolnai published his essay “On Disgust” in Husserl's ]ahrbuch he could truly assert that disgust was a "sorely neglected" topic. Now, however, this situation is changing as philosophers, psychologists, and historians of culture are turning their attention not only to emotions in general but more specifically to the large and disturbing set of aversive emotions, including disgust. We here provide an account of Kolnai’s contribution to the study of the phenomenon of disgust, of …Read more
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1187Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics (edited book)Pennsylvania State University Press. 1995.Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics takes a fresh look at the history of aesthetics and at current debates within the philosophy of art by exploring the ways in which gender informs notions of art and creativity, evaluation and interpretation, and concepts of aesthetic value. Multiple intellectual traditions have formed this field, and the discussions herein range from consideration of eighteenth century legacies of ideas about taste, beauty, and sublimity to debates about the relevance of post…Read more
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341IntroductionJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 48 (4): 277-280. 1990.This is the co-authored--with Carolyn Korsmeyer--Introduction to the first published feminist scholarship in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (Volume 48, Number 4, Fall 1990). Contributors included Hilde Hein, Paul Mattick, Jr., Timothy Gould, Joanne B. Waugh, Joseph Margolis, Mary Devereaux, Noel Carroll, Flo Leibowitz, Anita Silvers, Elizabeth Ann Dobie, Renee Cox, and Ellen Handler Spitz. All essays were subsequently published in an expanded book version entitled, Feminism and Trad…Read more
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242On the "aesthetic senses" and the development of fine artsJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 34 (1): 67-71. 1975.
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225Aesthetics: The Big Questions (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 1998.Philosophers have considered questions raised by the nature of art, of beauty, and critical appreciation since ancient times, and the discipline of aesthetics has a long tradition that stretches from Plato to the present
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178Touch and the Experience of the GenuineBritish Journal of Aesthetics 52 (4): 365-377. 2012.Genuineness is an important property of objects that are rare, old, or preserved as memorials. Being genuine enhances economic value for objects such as works of art, and it is obviously critical for historical purposes, such as assessing the artefacts from a past culture. Here I argue that genuineness is also an aesthetic property that delivers an experience of its own. I contend that the sense of touch covertly operates in such experiences, as this sense conveys the impression of being in cont…Read more
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165Gender and Aesthetics: An IntroductionRoutledge. 2004.Feminist approaches to art are extremely influential and widely studied across a variety of disciplines, including art theory, cultural and visual studies, and philosophy. Gender and Aesthetics is an introduction to the major theories and thinkers within art and aesthetics from a philosophical perspective, carefully introducing and examining the role that gender plays in forming ideas about art. It is ideal for anyone coming to the topic for the first time. Organized thematically, the book intro…Read more
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163Comment: Kolnai’s DisgustEmotion Review 6 (3): 219-220. 2014.In his The Meaning of Disgust, Colin McGinn employs elements of the phenomenological theory of disgust advanced by Aurel Kolnai in 1929. Kolnai’s treatment of what he calls “material” disgust and of its primary elicitors—putrefying organic matter, bodily wastes and secretions, sticky contaminants, vermin—anticipates more recent scientific treatments of this emotion as a mode of protective recoil. While Nina Strohminger charges McGinn with neglecting such scientific studies, we here attempt to sh…Read more
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132Aesthetics and Gender (edited book)The Polish Journal of Aesthetics. 2016.Combining aesthetic theory with gender analysis opens a large and diverse territory to explore. Both familiar issues in the philosophy of art and new, expanded questions about the influence of culture on imagination and identity have become subjects of feminist research. Film, literature, graphic arts, advertising, and the legacies of history all contribute to the forces that shape self-image, desire, behavior, and social role – as well as the ability to imagine possibilities for change. This is…Read more
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128Hume and the foundations of tasteJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 35 (2): 201-215. 1976.
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115Savoring Disgust: The Foul and the Fair in AestheticsOxford University Press. 2010.Disgust is a strong aversion, yet paradoxically it can constitute an appreciative aesthetic response to works of art. Artistic disgust can be funny, profound, sorrowful, or gross. This book examines numerous examples of disgust as it is aroused by art and offers a set of explanations for its aesthetic appeal.
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101On DisgustOpen Court. 2003.The problem of disgust has until recently been neglected in the scientific literature. In comparison to the scientific (psychological and metaphysical) interest that has been applied to hatred, anxiety, and similar phenomena, disgust — although a common and important factor in our emotional life — has been unexplored, or it has been viewed as a “higher degree of dislike,” as “nausea,” or as a phenomenon of the “repression of urges.” We here show how the feeling of disgust possesses a unique and …Read more
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86The eclipse of truth in the rise of aestheticsBritish Journal of Aesthetics 29 (4): 293-302. 1989.
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79What beauty promises:: Reflections on Alexander Nehamas, only a promise of happiness: The place of beauty in a world of artBritish Journal of Aesthetics 50 (2): 193-198. 2010.Alexander Nehamas calls beauty a ‘promise of happiness’ and claims that it is an object of love. While this approach appealingly places beauty at the center of both artistic passion and everyday life, it also renders it riskily personal. This discussion raises two main questions to Nehamas. The first question regards the role of happiness in the concept of beauty, for many beautiful artworks seem to acknowledge the inevitability of sorrow rather than its opposite. The second question concerns ho…Read more
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76Disputing tasteThe Philosophers' Magazine 45 70-76. 2009.The sense of taste falls low on the hierarchy of the senses because it seems a poor conduit for knowledge of the external world; it directs attention inward rather than outward; its pleasures are sensuous and bodily, prone to overindulgence that distracts from higher human endeavours; and its objects are at best merely pleasant, not of the highest aesthetic value. Such is the traditional assessment; now let us analyse its justice
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69Disgust and AestheticsPhilosophy Compass 7 (11): 753-761. 2012.Disgust is an emotion that is visceral, reactive, and uncomfortable. It is also purposively aroused by art in ways that contribute substantially to the meaning of a work. In such cases “aesthetic disgust” is a component of understanding and appreciation. Disgust comes in many varieties, including the humorous, the horrid, and the tragic. The responses it elicits can be strong or subtle, but few are actually pleasant. Therefore aesthetic disgust raises an ancient question: how is it that emotions…Read more
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62The turn to the bodyThe Philosophers' Magazine 50 (50): 74-75. 2010.The sense of taste falls low on the hierarchy of the senses because it seems a poor conduit for knowledge of the external world; it directs attention inward rather than outward; its pleasures are sensuous and bodily, prone to overindulgence that distracts from higher human endeavours; and its objects are at best merely pleasant, not of the highest aesthetic value. Such is the traditional assessment; now let us analyse its justice
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61Aesthetic deception: On encounters with the pastJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 66 (2). 2008.
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55Real Old ThingsBritish Journal of Aesthetics 56 (3): 219-231. 2016.Although we experience many cultural artifacts by way of reproductions, there remains a particular thrill in experiencing genuine objects—‘real things’. I argue that genuineness is a property that possesses many dimensions of value, including aesthetic value. Typically, aesthetic qualities are perceptual, but genuineness is not a perceptual property. I investigate the aesthetic dimensions of genuineness by considering the role of touch in encounters with old things, using the example of an ancie…Read more
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55Taste and other senses: Reconsidering the foundations of aestheticsNordic Journal of Aesthetics 26 (54). 2018.The sense of taste has served as a governing metaphor for aesthetic discernment for several centuries, and recent philosophical perspectives on this history have invited literal, gustatory taste into aesthetic relevance. This paper summarizes the disposition of taste in aesthetics by means of three stories, the most recent of which considers food in terms of aesthetics and its employment in works of art. I conclude with some reflections on the odd position that taste has achieved in the postmode…Read more
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52Fear and Disgust: the Sublime and the SublateRevue Internationale de Philosophie 250 (4): 367-379. 2009.
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52Pleasure: Reflections on aesthetics and feminismJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 51 (2): 199-206. 1993.
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50Philosophical Perspectives on Ruins, Monuments, and Memorials (edited book)Routledge. 2019.This collection of newly published essays examines our relationship to physical objects that invoke, commemorate, and honor the past. The recent destruction of cultural heritage in war and controversies over Civil War monuments in the US have foregrounded the importance of artifacts that embody history. The book invites us to ask: How do memorials convey their meanings? What is our responsibility for the preservation or reconstruction of historically significant structures? How should we respond…Read more
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48A Tour of the SensesBritish Journal of Aesthetics 59 (4): 357-371. 2019.Traditionally, the bodily senses of smell, taste, and touch have been designated ‘nonaesthetic’ senses and their objects considered unsuited to be fashioned into works of fine art. Recent innovations in the art world, however, have introduced scents, tastes, and tactile qualities into gallery exhibits, movements that, at least superficially, appear parallel to philosophical revaluations of the senses. This paper investigates the aesthetic scope of the five external senses, addressing some standa…Read more
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47The Compass in the EyeThe Monist 76 (4): 508-523. 1993.“Of all the fine arts, drawing is indisputably the most useful, the most positive, and the most capable of practical application,” declared Sigismond Schuster, author of one of the many popular drawing books of the nineteenth century. “It might in this respect be classed rather among the useful than the ornamental arts, for it is the basis of them all, and is an indispensable auxiliary to every mechanic. Drawing is the language of nature and of the imagination; it secures ease and steadiness to …Read more
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
Aesthetic Concepts |
Aesthetics and Emotions |
Areas of Interest
Value Theory |
Aesthetic Concepts |
Aesthetics and Emotions |