•  7
    Art and Moral Motivation: Why Art Fails to Move Us
    The 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
  •  8
    Engaged Philosophy – the Case of Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art
    Filozofska 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
  •  14
    Reconciling Poetry and Philosophy
    Croatian 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
  •  24
    Filozofski život
    with Nebojša Mudri, Ljudevit Hanžek, Tina Marasović, Marijana Filipeti, Marija Lamot, Lovre Grisogono, Nikola Erceg, Mateja Borgudan, Ana Vračar, Milijana Đerić, Boško Pešić, Tomislav Petković, Ivana Zagorac, Ivana Skuhala Karasman, Marija Selak, Željko Maurović, and Hrvoje Jurić
    Filozofska Istrazivanja 30 (4): 715-742. 2010.
  •  28
    Aesthetic Cognitivism and Serialized Television Fiction
    Journal 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
  •  8
    Artistic Creation
    Filozofska 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
  •  2
    Alan H. Goldman, Philosophy and the Novel
    Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 52 (1): 122. 2020.
  •  5
    Derek Attridge, The Work of Literature
    Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 54 (1): 138. 2020.
  •  31
    Fiction, Philosophy, and Television: The Case of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
    Journal 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
  •  26
    Rethinking the philosophy – literature distinction
    Rivista 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
  •  15
    Literature and Truth
    Croatian 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
  •  4
    Introduction
    Croatian 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
  •  12
    Epistemic Game of Thrones
    Synthesis Philosophica 32 (1): 215-234. 2017.
  •  54
    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
  •  8
    The Possibility of Culture: Pleasure and Moral Development in Kant’s Aesthetics (review)
    Croatian Journal of Philosophy 17 (3): 453-459. 2017.
  •  195
    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
  •  12
    Literature, Analytically Speaking (review)
    Croatian Journal of Philosophy 11 (3): 358-370. 2011.
  •  28
    Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach by Philip Kitcher
    Philosophy 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
  •  12
    Filozofski život
    with Bruno Ćurko, Ivana Kragić, Elvina Šehić, Ivana Skuhala Karasman, Igor Eterović, Goran Grgec, Tomislav Krznar, and Marija Selak
    Filozofska Istrazivanja 31 (4): 891-908. 2011.
  •  40
    Peter Swirski, Stanislaw Lem: Philosopher of the Future. Reviewed by
    Philosophy 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
  •  42
    Art, Knowledge and Testimony
    with Elvio Baccarini
    Synthesis 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
  • Thought Experiments, Hypotheses, and Cognitive Dimension of Literary Fiction
    Synthesis Philosophica 28 (1-2): 177-193. 2013.
    Some authors defend literary cognitivism – the view that literary fiction is cognitively valuable – by drawing an analogy between cognitive values of thought experiments and literary fiction. In this paper my aim is to analyse the reasons for drawing this analogy and to see how far the analogy can be stretched. In the second part, I turn to the claim put forward by literary anti-cognitivists according to which literature can at best be the source of hypotheses, not of knowledge. I challenge this…Read more
  • Mini-simpozij »Vrijednosti umjetnosti«
    Filozofska Istrazivanja 30 (4): 741-742. 2010.