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18Colonizing SpaceInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 37 (1): 1-10. 2023.This paper considers the argument that we have a duty to colonise other planets because we owe it to future generations. It puts forward the view that formulations of this argument in the current literature are confused. It distinguishes (at least) four versions of the argument and shows that none of them are compelling. It draws the conclusion that, should people put forward these arguments, they ought to be more precise in their formulations and more rigorous in their defence.
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18Heritage and War: Ethical Issues (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2023.The destruction of cultural heritage in war is currently attracting considerable attention. ISIS’s campaign of deliberate destruction across the Middle East was met with widespread horror and calls for some kind of international response. The United States attracted criticism for both its accidental damaging of Ancient Babylon in 2015 and its failure to protect the Mosul Museum from looters in 2003. In 2016, the International Criminal Court prosecuted its first case of the destruction of heritag…Read more
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4EditorialBritish Journal of Aesthetics 57 (1). 2017.After four years as Editorial Assistant of the British Journal of Aesthetics, Dr Víctor Durà-Vilà is stepping down from his post. We would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his outstanding service to the journal, including the development of an exemplary Style Guide. We would also like to welcome our new editorial assistants, Jeremy Page and Rebecca Wallbank, both based at Uppsala University. We look forward to working with them for the benefit of our readers.
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11Approach to Aesthetics: Collected Papers on Philosophical AestheticsMind 111 (444): 912-916. 2002.
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11Introduction to the Special Issue on Art and Morality and Précis of the Four Books Included in the SymposiumBritish Journal of Aesthetics 62 (4): 511-515. 2022.The relation between art and morality is one of the vexed issues of aesthetics; it has a history at least from Plato and has been written about, or commented on, by most if not all the luminaries in aesthetics—it is not coincidence that one of the most influential papers on these debates is also one of the most cited papers of this journal. Also, the (im)pertinence of moral concerns for the assessment of artworks is arguably one of the most discussed philosophical issues in the public opinion (a…Read more
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27The Value of Aesthetic Value: Aesthetics, Ethics, and The Network TheoryDisputatio 13 (62): 189-204. 2021.The standard discussion of the relation between aesthetics and ethics tends to avoid the fundamental question: how are those two values ranked against each other in terms of importance. This paper looks at two arguments, the ‘resource allocation argument’ and the ‘relative weight argument’. It puts forward the view that any theory of aesthetic value should characterise aesthetic value in a way that allows for the existence of these arguments. It argues that hedonism does that successfully, but t…Read more
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22Non-Fictions and Narrative TruthsCroatian Journal of Philosophy 22 (65): 145-160. 2022.This paper starts from the fact that the study of narrative in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy is almost exclusively the study of fictional narrative. It returns to an earlier debate in which Hayden White argued that “historiography is a form of fiction-making.” Although White’s claims are hyperbolical, the paper argues that he was correct to stress the importance of the claim that fiction and non-fiction use “the same techniques and strategies.” A distinction is drawn between properties …Read more
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45Drawing the Line: What to Do with the Work of Immoral Artists from Museums to the MoviesJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. forthcoming.
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35Introduction and PrécisBritish Journal of Aesthetics 62 (2): 159-162. 2022.Through the last decade of the last millennium, several influential books were published on Fiction, notably among these are Kendall Walton’s Mimesis and Make B.
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2Figuring Out Figurative Art: Contemporary Philosophers on Contemporary Paintings (edited book)Acumen Publishing. 2014.In 1797 Friedrich Schlegel wrote philosophy of art usually lacks one of two things: either the philosophy, or the art. This collection of essays contains both the philosophy and the art. It brings together an international team of leading philosophers to address diverse philosophical issues raised by recent works of art. Each essay engages with a specific artwork and explores the connection between the image and the philosophical content and how philosophy can aid interpretation of the artwork. …Read more
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In the third issue of the J. Paul Getty Trust Occasional Papers in Cultural Heritage Policy series, authors Helen Frowe and Derek Matravers pivot from the earlier tone of the series in discussing the appropriate response to attacks on cultural heritage with their paper, “Conflict and Cultural Heritage: A Moral Analysis of the Challenges of Heritage Protection.” While Frowe and Matravers acknowledge the importance of cultural heritage, they assert that we must more carefully consider the complex …Read more
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11Comments on Rafe McGregor's Narrative CriminologyJournal of Aesthetic Education 54 (4): 19-25. 2020.To write Narrative Justice, one would need to be expert in the philosophy of fiction, in criminology, in crime, and in military history. Hence, possibly only someone with exactly Rafe McGregor's background could have done it. Aside from the truly interdisciplinary nature of the book, several other virtues stand out. I will mention in particular the rigorous argumentation and the clarity of the writing. McGregor does not shelter behind obfuscation; everything is there in plain sight. Indeed, his …Read more
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21Things: In Touch with the PastPhilosophical Quarterly 70 (278): 212-215. 2020.Things: In Touch with the Past. By Korsmeyer Carolyn.
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452Aesthetic RelativismPostgraduate Journal of Aesthetics 7 (2): 1-12. 2010.As Hume remarks, the view that aesthetic evaluations are ‘subjective’ is part of common sense—one certainly meets it often enough in conversation. As philosophers, we can distinguish the one sense of the claim (‘aesthetic evaluations are mind- dependent’) from another (‘aesthetic evaluations are relative’). A plausible reading of the former claim (‘some of the grounds of some aesthetic evaluations are response- dependent’) is true. This paper concerns the latter claim. It is not unknown, or even…Read more
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11Empathy--our capacity to cognitively or affectively connect with other people's thoughts and feelings--is a concept whose definition and meaning varies widely within philosophy and other disciplines. Philosophical Perspectives on Empathy advances research on the nature and function of empathy by exploring and challenging different theoretical approaches to this phenomenon. The first section of the book explores empathy as a historiographical method, presenting a number of rich and interesting ar…Read more
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29Visualizing and Visualizing RepresentationsJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 76 (3): 275-284. 2018.
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1"Perception and the Evolution of Style: A New Model of Mind": Jane Gear (review)British Journal of Aesthetics 30 (4): 378. 1990.
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Reading Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to MillRoutledge. 2000.This clear and thorough introduction provides students with the skills necessary to understand the main thinkers, texts and arguments of political philosophy and thought. Each chapter comprises a brief overview of a major political thinker, followed by an introduction to one or more of their most influential works and an introduction to key secondary readings. Key features include: * exercises * reading notes * guides for further reading The book introduces and assesses: Machiavelli's _Prince_; …Read more
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20Reading Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to MillRoutledge. 2000.This clear and thorough introduction provides students with the skills necessary to understand the main thinkers, texts and arguments of political philosophy and thought. Each chapter comprises a brief overview of a major political thinker, followed by an introduction to one or more of their most influential works and an introduction to key secondary readings. Key features include: * exercises * reading notes * guides for further reading The book introduces and assesses: Machiavelli's _Prince_; …Read more
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18Why some modern art is junkCogito 8 (1): 19-25. 1994.The recent exhibition at the Hayward must surely have prompted anyone who paid £5 to see it to ask whether some of what they were being shown was worth looking at. This is not simply the 'But is it art?' question all over again, but something more specific. do we have a reason to _see_ these things, as opposed to hearing about them, reading about them or appreciating them in some other way? One would expect the answer to be 'yes'. Art, like malt whisky, is made to be experienced. That is, one ca…Read more
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32Richard Wollheim was born in 1923 in London. His father was Eric Wollheim who was at the time the London manager for Diaghilev. His mother had been a Gaiety girl; she left the stage when she married. Wollheim was educated at Westminster School and then, after active service in the Second World War, he went to Oxford to complete degrees in history and PPE. Despite relatively little study of the subject he was recruited by A. J. Ayer for the Philosophy Department at University College London. He r…Read more
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139Why We Should Give Up on the ImaginationMidwest Studies in Philosophy 34 (1): 190-199. 2010.This paper criticises the current orthodoxy that people who engage with fiction fils are exercising their imagination
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50I am going to assume, in what follows, that when we engage with a fiction we are participating in a game of make-believe; that is, that we are engaging in an imaginative effort. In this paper I shall attempt to identify the kind of game we are playing. I begin with two words of caution. First, identifying the kind of game will be a matter of finding a game whose structure best reflects the facts about our engagement with fiction. The fit, however, will not be exact. In a game of mud pies, the fa…Read more
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55True to our feelings: What our emotions are really telling us – Robert C. SolomonPhilosophical Quarterly 58 (233): 751-753. 2008.No Abstract
Israel
Areas of Specialization
Aesthetics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Value Theory, Miscellaneous |
Areas of Interest
Aesthetics |
Meta-Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Value Theory, Miscellaneous |