• Beyond the either/or in aesthetic life : a new approach to aesthetic universality
    In Dominic McIver Lopes, Samantha Matherne, Mohan Matthen & Bence Nanay (eds.), The Geography of Taste, Oxford University Press. 2024.
  •  427
    The Geography of Taste
    Oxford University Press. 2024.
    Aesthetic preferences and practices vary widely between individuals and between cultures. How should aesthetics proceed if we take this fact of aesthetic diversity, rather than the presumption of aesthetic universality, as our starting point? How should we theorize the cultural origins and cultural basis of aesthetic diversity? How should we think about the value and normativity of aesthetic diversity? In an effort to model what the turn toward diversity might look like in aesthetic inquiry, eac…Read more
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    An abridged reading guide for Friedrich Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, based on Matherne and Riggle's two-part paper, "Schiller on Freedom and Aesthetic Value". Part I: British Journal of Aesthetics 60 (4): 375-402. 2020 Part II: British Journal of Aesthetics 61 (1): 17-40. 2021
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    Cassirer on method, the a priori, and culture: a reply
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 1-10. forthcoming.
    In the 1920s, Cassirer had the good fortune of participating in the intellectual community that gathered around the Warburg Library in Hamburg. 1This “dreamland of humanists” had a profound impact...
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    In order to explore the question of whether artists are phenomenologists, I consider the negative and affirmative answers defended by Edith Landmann-Kalischer and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, respectively. Through this comparison, I bring to light reasons why phenomenologists take themselves to share a subject-matter with artists, viz., lived experience. However, with this comparison I also highlight the ways in which the answer to this question turns on how we conceive of what phenomenologists do. If…Read more
  •  26
    Aesthetic Humility: A Kantian Model
    Mind 132 (526): 452-478. 2022.
    Unlike its moral and intellectual counterparts, the virtue of aesthetic humility has been widely neglected. In order to begin filling in this gap, I argue that Kant’s aesthetics is a promising resource for developing a model of aesthetic humility. Initially, however, this may seem like an unpromising starting point as Kant’s aesthetics might appear to promote aesthetic arrogance instead. In spite of this prima facie worry, I claim that Kant’s aesthetics provides an illuminating model of aestheti…Read more
  •  240
    Aesthetic Humility: A Kantian Model
    Mind (fzac010): 452-478. 2022.
    Unlike its moral and intellectual counterparts, the virtue of aesthetic humility has been widely neglected. In order to begin filling in this gap, I argue that Kant’s aesthetics is a promising resource for developing a model of aesthetic humility. Initially, however, this may seem like an unpromising starting point as Kant’s aesthetics might appear to promote aesthetic arrogance instead. In spite of this prima facie worry, I claim that Kant’s aesthetics provides an illuminating model of aestheti…Read more
  •  52
    Aesthetic Autonomy and Norms of Exposure
    Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 102 (4): 686-711. 2021.
    Is there tension in a view of the conditions of being in a proper position to make aesthetic evaluations that is committed to aesthetic autonomy and norms of exposure? I define ‘aesthetic autonomy’ in terms of the Kantian idea that in order to make a proper aesthetic evaluation, one must rely on oneself rather than on any outside source. I define ‘norms of exposure’ in terms of the Humean idea that practice and aesthetic education are conditions of proper aesthetic evaluation. Prima facie, these…Read more
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    Aesthetic Learners and Underachievers: Symposium on Dom Lopes’s Being for beauty
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 102 (1): 227-231. 2021.
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    Edith Landmann-Kalischer on Aesthetic Demarcation and Normativity
    British Journal of Aesthetics 60 (3): 315-334. 2020.
    Two perennial questions in aesthetics, among others, are the demarcation question, viz., what, if anything, distinguishes the aesthetic domain from the cognitive or moral domains, and the normative question, viz., what kind of normativity, if any, does the aesthetic domain involve. Although recent attempts to answer these questions can be found in contemporary literature, in this paper I examine the answers defended by the early phenomenologist Edith Landmann-Kalischer. I show that Landmann-Kali…Read more
  •  86
    Schiller on Freedom and Aesthetic Value: Part II
    British Journal of Aesthetics 61 (1): 17-40. 2021.
    In his Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, Friedrich Schiller draws a striking connection between aesthetic value and individual and political freedom, claiming that, ‘it is only through beauty that man makes his way to freedom’. However, contemporary ways of thinking about freedom and aesthetic value make it difficult to see what the connection could be. Through a careful reconstruction of the Letters, we argue that Schiller’s theory of aesthetic value serves as the key to understanding …Read more
  •  149
    Schiller on Freedom and Aesthetic Value: Part I
    British Journal of Aesthetics 60 (4): 375-402. 2020.
    In his Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, Friedrich Schiller draws a striking connection between aesthetic value and individual and political freedom, claiming that, ‘it is only through beauty that man makes his way to freedom’. However, contemporary ways of thinking about freedom and aesthetic value make it difficult to see what the connection could be. Through a careful reconstruction of the Letters, we argue that Schiller’s theory of aesthetic value serves as the key to understanding …Read more
  • Schiller on Freedom and Aesthetic Value Part 2
    British Journal of Aesthetics. forthcoming.
    In his Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), Friedrich Schiller draws a striking connection between aesthetic value and individual and political freedom, claiming that, “it is only through beauty that man makes his way to freedom.” However, contemporary ways of thinking about freedom and aesthetic value make it difficult to see what the connection could be. Through a careful reconstruction of the Letters, we argue that Schiller’s theory of aesthetic value serves as the key to underst…Read more
  •  65
    The Hidden Art of Understanding: Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty's Appropriation of Kant's Theory of Imagination
    New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy 17 225-245. 2019.
    In this paper I explore the influence of Kant's theory of imagination on a specific aspect of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty's thought, viz., their theories of understanding. 1 argue that the theories of Verstehen that Heidegger presents in Being and Time and of comprendre that Merleau-Ponty presents in Phenomenology of Perception can be helpfully read as elaborations of Kant's account of imagination.
  •  149
    Kant on Aesthetic Autonomy and Common Sense
    Philosophers' Imprint 19. 2019.
    Recently, Kant’s account of aesthetic autonomy has received attention from those interested in a range of issues in aesthetics, including the subjectivity of aesthetic judgment, quasi-realism, aesthetic testimony, and aesthetic normativity. Although these discussions have shed much light on the implications of Kant’s account of aesthetic autonomy, the phenomenon of aesthetic autonomy itself tends to be under-described. Commentators often focus on the negative aspect of this phenomenon, i.e., the…Read more
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    Volume 98, Issue 1, March 2020, Page 202-205.
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    Toward a new transcendental aesthetic: Merleau-Ponty’s appraisal of Kant’s philosophical method
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 27 (2): 378-401. 2019.
    In light of the central role scientific research plays in Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, the question has arisen whether his phenomenology involves some sort of commitment to naturalism or whether it is better understood along transcendental lines. In order to make headway on this issue, I focus specifically on Merleau-Ponty’s method and its relationship to Kant’s transcendental method. On the one hand, I argue that Merleau-Ponty rejects Kant’s method, the ‘method-without-which’, which seeks the…Read more
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    Review of Gregory Moss, Ernst Cassirer and the Autonomy of Language (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 6. 2015.
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    Merleau‐Ponty on abstract thought in mathematics and natural science
    European Journal of Philosophy 26 (2): 780-97. 2018.
    In this paper, I argue that in spite of suggestions to the contrary, Merleau-Ponty defends a positive account of the kind of abstract thought involved in mathematics and natural science. More specifically, drawing on both the Phenomenology of Perception and his later writings, I show that, for Merleau-Ponty, abstract thought and perception stand in the two-way relation of “foundation,” according to which abstract thought makes what we perceive explicit and determinate, and what we perceive is ma…Read more
  •  164
    In spite of Ernst Cassirer’s criticisms of psychologism throughout Substance and Function, in the final chapter he issues a demand for a “psychology of relations” that can do justice to the subjective dimensions of mathematics and natural science. Although these remarks remain somewhat promissory, the fact that this is how Cassirer chooses to conclude Substance and Function recommends it as a topic worthy of serious consideration. In this paper, I argue that in order to work out the details of C…Read more
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    Merleau-Ponty on Style as the Key to Perceptual Presence and Constancy
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 55 (4): 693-727. 2017.
    In recent discussions of two important issues in the philosophy of perception, viz. the problems of perceptual presence and perceptual constancy, Merleau-Ponty’s ideas have been garnering attention thanks to the work of Sean Kelly and Alva Noë. Although both Kelly’s normative approach and Noë’s enactive approach highlight important aspects of Merleau-Ponty’s view, I argue that neither does full justice to it because they overlook the central role that style plays in his solution to these problem…Read more
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    The Inclusive Interpretation of Kant's Aesthetic Ideas
    British Journal of Aesthetics 53 (1): 21-39. 2013.
    In the Critique of the Power of Judgment, Kant offers a theory of artistic expression in which he claims that a work of art is a medium through which an artist expresses an ‘aesthetic idea’. While Kant’s theory of aesthetic ideas often receives rather restrictive interpretations, according to which aesthetic ideas can either present only moral concepts, or only moral concepts and purely rational concepts, in this article I offer an ‘inclusive interpretation’ of aesthetic ideas, according to whic…Read more