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My aim in this paper is to provide clarification of my view on ethical criticism of narrative art in order to respond to some of the concerns issued at it by Rafe McGregor. While McGregor and I share numerous assumptions regarding the cognitive and ethical value of art, we disagree with respect to certain practical concerns. To address his challenge, I argue for the necessity of joining philosophical research with research in other domains, primarily in cognitive sciences, in order to determine …Read more
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11Art and Moral Motivation: Why Art Fails to Move UsThe Journal of Aesthetic Education 57 (1): 19-35. 2023.My aim in this article is to defend the view that art is a relevant source of knowledge, including moral knowledge, in the absence of empirical evidence corroborating this view. In the first part, I discuss what is known as the causal question, that is, the question regarding art's impact on spectators. I argue that the alleged failure of art to impact us may be a matter of moral motivation and the particular circumstances of moral reasoning more than the cognitive and ethical character of a wor…Read more
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14Engaged Philosophy – the Case of Aesthetics and the Philosophy of ArtFilozofska Istrazivanja 42 (4): 687-705. 2022.In this paper, I address the question of engaged philosophy with an emphasis on aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Referring to some specific problems discussed in these areas – in particular climate change, ecological crisis and immoral art – I demonstrate that philosophy can be engaged in two ways: (i) in its aspiration to question social reality, culture, human experience and the strategies for making sense of and finding value in that experience; (ii) in the aspiration to contribute to th…Read more
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16Reconciling Poetry and PhilosophyCroatian Journal of Philosophy 18 (3): 487-498. 2018.Poetry and philosophy have had a long and convoluted relation, characterized often by mutual antipathy and rarely by mutual acknowledgment and respect. Plato was one influential philosopher who trashed poetry’s capacities to trade in the domain of truth and knowledge, but it was J. L. Austin who blew the final whistle by dismissing it as non-serious. And while for many poets that was an invitation to dismiss Austin, for many philosophers that was a confirmation of the overall discomfort they had…Read more
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18Review of Concept TV: An Aesthetics of Television Series, by Luca Bandirali and Enrico Terrone (review)Film and Philosophy 27 143-147. 2023.
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44Aesthetic Cognitivism and Serialized Television FictionJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 81 (1): 69-79. 2023.In this article, I defend the cognitive value of certain generic television series. Unlike media and television scholars, who have been appreciative of the informative capacity of television fiction, philosophers have been less willing to acknowledge the way in which these works contribute to our understanding of our social reality. My aim here is to provide one such account, grounded in aesthetic cognitivism, that is, the view that fiction is a source of knowledge. Focusing on crime and courtro…Read more
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11Artistic CreationFilozofska Istrazivanja 39 (4): 761-775. 2020.With his thesis on the genius who does not know from where their ideas come from and how they create, Kant left an indelible mark on thought concerning art and artistic creation. He insisted that it represents a unique act by natural gift, and thus specific for the domain of art, and specifically not belonging to the domain of science. Although today we know that such a disposition is wrong, many of Kant’s claims are supported in contemporary theories in cognitive science, but also by the artist…Read more
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6Alan H. Goldman, Philosophy and the NovelEstetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 52 (1): 122. 2020.
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9Derek Attridge, The Work of LiteratureEstetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 54 (1): 138. 2020.
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41Fiction, Philosophy, and Television: The Case of Law and Order: Special Victims UnitJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 79 (1): 76-87. 2021.This article lies at the intersection of two problems: the one concerning the potential of fictional works to inform us about our social reality and foster our understanding of its various aspects, and the one concerning their potential to engage with philosophical issues. I bring these two together by analyzing the hit television series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. According to my interpretation, the series is informative about our social world, and it raises philosophical concerns abou…Read more
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33Rethinking the philosophy – literature distinctionRivista di Estetica 70 156-170. 2019.Contemporary debates within analytic philosophy regarding the relation between literature and philosophy focus on the capacity of some literary works to engage with philosophical problems. While some philosophers see literature as a welcome contribution to philosophy, or as an alternative to pursuing philosophical questions, some are more sceptical with respect to its capacity to tackle philosophical concerns. As a contribution to this debate, in this paper I look at similarities and dissimilari…Read more
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21Literature and TruthCroatian Journal of Philosophy 19 (2): 351-370. 2019.In this paper I address Jerome Stolnitz’s famous article “On the cognitive triviality of art,” with the aim of defending aesthetic and literary cognitivism against the charges Stolnitz issues at it therein. My defence of literary cognitivism is grounded in contemporary epistemology, which, I argue, is more embracive of cognitive values of literature traditionally invoked by literary cognitivists. My discussion is structured against Stolnitz’s individual arguments, dedicated in particular to the …Read more
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7IntroductionCroatian Journal of Philosophy 19 (2): 189-191. 2019.In this paper I address Jerome Stolnitz’s famous article “On the cognitive triviality of art,” with the aim of defending aesthetic and literary cognitivism against the charges Stolnitz issues at it therein. My defence of literary cognitivism is grounded in contemporary epistemology, which, I argue, is more embracive of cognitive values of literature traditionally invoked by literary cognitivists. My discussion is structured against Stolnitz’s individual arguments, dedicated in particular to the …Read more
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34Murray Smith. Film, Art, and the Third Culture: A Naturalized Aesthetics of Film. Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 38 (3): 123-125. 2018.
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61Big Philosophical Questions: Why They Matter and Why They Are Still AroundThe European Legacy 23 (4): 403-415. 2018.Big philosophical questions—about the mind, the idea of the good, justice, beauty, knowledge—have been the prime interest of philosophers ever since Plato first raised them in his dialogues. However, regardless of how hard philosophers have been trying to find answers to them, it seems that all they have ever managed to do was to find reasons for disagreements, and, on the whole, to have failed to reach a consensus on pretty much anything. Some philosophers now claim that there hasn’t been much …Read more
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9The Possibility of Culture: Pleasure and Moral Development in Kant’s Aesthetics (review)Croatian Journal of Philosophy 17 (3): 453-459. 2017.
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15SWIRSKI, PETER. American Crime Fiction: A Cultural History of Nobrow Literature as Art. Palgrave MacMillan, 2016, xiii + 222 pp., 12 b&w illus., $99.99 cloth (review)Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 75 (3): 318-321. 2017.
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212O vrijednosti i bezvrijednosti humanističkih nauka: Poučci Helen SmallКултура (153): 167-182. 2016.One of the most contentious question in today’s discussions on the educational policies concerns the role and values of the humanities in contemporary society and education. Many see the humanities as empty, unnecessary, inefficient, phony and worthless. This paper offers a rundown of arguments adduced to support this view, followed by an overview of Helen Small’s The Value of the Humanities, which offers an exceptionally critical and insightful analysis into the current debate over the value of…Read more
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31Alan H. Goldman, Philosophy and the NovelEstetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 52 (1): 122-127. 2015.A review of Alan H. Goldman´s Philosophy and the Novel
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12Swirski, Peter. From Literature to Biterature: Lem, Turing, Darwin, and Explorations in Computer Literature, Philosophy of Mind, and Cultural Evolution. McGill‐Queen's University Press, 2013, 235 pp., 43 b&w illus., $26.96 cloth (review)Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 72 (4): 461-463. 2014.
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35Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach by Philip KitcherPhilosophy and Literature 40 (1): 320-324. 2016.From philosophy of science, epistemology, and ethics to political philosophy and philosophy of mathematics, Philip Kitcher has made outstanding contributions to every philosophical discipline. With Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach, he continues his journey into philosophy of literature he undertook back in 2007 with his book Joyce’s Kaleidoscope. Written in his clear, precise, and occasionally almost poetic style, Deaths in Venice is not only an inspiring new interpretation o…Read more
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43Peter Swirski, Stanislaw Lem: Philosopher of the Future. Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 36 (1): 23-25. 2016.Stanislaw Lem, Philosopher of the Future is a revealing and instructive guide to the philosophical fiction of Stanislaw Lem. Throughout the book, Swirski builds a framework of philosophical and scientific concepts within which Lem’s works should be read, in particular its most significant aspect: Lem’s unyielding concern for knowledge supported by his conviction that literature is an epistemologically valuable tool for exploring reality. Swirski offers a rich background to Lem's litrary career a…Read more
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45Art, Knowledge and TestimonySynthesis Philosophica 25 (2): 333-348. 2010.In this paper we want to explore different epistemological benefits that we gain by dealing with some artworks, and our focus is on narrative arts. We claim that there is a sense in which narrative arts can be similar to testimony, in that they provide information which can be epistemologically valuable for cognitive agents such as we are. We identify at least two broad categories of these epistemological benefits, the first one includes ‘facts stating’ and in that sense is parallel to the parad…Read more
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University of RijekaOther
University of Rijeka
PhD, 2013
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Aesthetics |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Metaphilosophy |
Aesthetics |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Value Theory |