Brady, Ch 8: On the Relation of Aesthetics and Ethics
- Overall position: Aes value is both distinct from and related to ethical value
- Brady's analysis of Foster's pollution sunset example
- Aes pleasure conflicts with moral attitude toward env
- Is she reducing aes response to aes pleasure so as to make it
easier to argue it is distinct from moral concerns?
- She's concerned mainly with cases where aes aim or consideration conflicts
with our moral obligations to nature
- Direct harm to nature from human acts with aes aims
- Examples
- Gardening and ag practices produce flowers and other plants in aes
appealing conditions use fertilizers and damage and dsrupt
ecosystems
- Rather than allowing a lake to drain due to natural geo process, we
preserve the natural beauty and cultural value of a lake by arresting
those values (Keekok Lee's example)
- I'm not sure harm is the way to characterize the results of this
human action; thwarting natural processes and undermining
wildness is better language
- Human introduced exotic species can be beautiful but cause real harm
- Rhododendron ponticum: Brought to Britain from
Portugal/Spain in 1763 has bright colorful flowers with strong
aes applea, attracts bus tours in late spring
- Tourists horrified when learn that policy is to eradicate this
plant species
- MORALISM VERSUS AUTONOMISM (AESTHETICISM)
- Moralism
- Moral defects in art count as aesthetic defects
- Moral and aesthetic concerns can be integrated so as to be inseparable
- Carroll:
- Some works of art may be evaluated morally
- Sometimes the moral defects/merits of a work may figure in the
aes evaluation of the work
- Plato: see art as having instrumental value as means to moral
education
- Autonomism
- Moral defects never decrease aesthetic value (not aes defects)
- Kant: artistic value is distinct autonomous domain untouched by
moral considerations
- artistic value is noninstrumental;
- Art to be app for own sake
- I don't see why moralism is committed to denying intrinsic value of
aesthetic value; the view simply holds that sometimes moral considerations are
relevant to aes value
- People can see the conflict aes and moral value and this seems like a good
initial plausible argument for these types of value being different.
- They conflict because they have different bases
- The debate over moralism depends on one's view of how to conceive
of aesthetics
- If bases properties (of aes qualities), include moral judgments/qualities/factors, then
we have moralism
- If the relevant background information for aes judgments includes
moral judgments, then we have moralism
- Reason for moralism:
- A moral stances (e.g., a concern for humans) is part of the appreciative
stance we take to many aes encounters
- Our aes and moral interests so intertwined that they become
inseparable
- Moral concerns (portrayal of a character) can be central to aes effect
of work
- Moral considerations don't always detract from aes attention and take
us outside the realm of the aesthetics, but moral interest can also
increase our engagement and focus and draw us further into the
narrative or content of the work
- E.g., Emotionally affected by the characters, care how their lives turn
out (even if just fictional world), we are dismayed when injustice
prevail; such emotional responses are what author expects and are a
part of the imaginative response expected to fictional narratives and
so seem inseparable from aesthetic impact
- Thus some of our aes judgements are nec bound up with moral judge
- Harry Potter example: When Snape kills Dumbledore in the latest book, the treachery and moral evil of what he does is part of the aes impact of the story: why it is so powerful
- What exactly is a moral defect?
- Narrative art often has moral content: bad things happen in these
fictional worlds and these are crucial parts of the plots that make them
interesting and enlightening
- Moral defect occurs when moral content is suspect
- E.g., Novel that takes a sympathetic attitude towards the
violence against women
- Will be rejected regardless of any aesthetic merit as this
sort of moral defect creates an aes defect, thus moral and
aes become inseparable
- Her statement of the position here is not helpful
- When Snape kills Dumbledore that is a moral defect in Snape, not in JK
Rowling's novel
- This shows only that moral concerns are part of aesthetic impact, not
that a moral defect is an aesthetic one
- But this does show that the aes impact depends in part on the moral
substance
- So why can't the aesthetic impact of a pollution sunset be affected by
the moral substance of it?
- But if JK Rowling were to try to get us to feel sympathetic to Snape or to
Valdemort, part of why that would make her novels worse is that such
sympathy is morally inappropriate: This is the claim that a moral defect can be (is, in this case) an aesthetic defect.
- Foster argues that if we aes appreciate pollution sunset we are appreciating
a destructive situation and to app a genuinely destructive situation is to
approve of them
- Forster thinks we can't find pollution sunsets beautiful because to do
so would be to condone life-denying qualities
- Of course one might simply say we aes approve of them but
morally disapprove
- And Carlson says this involves wanting them to continue to exist or
for there to be more of them
- And this does not fit with our dislike of the pollution sunset and
wishing there were not more of them
- Brady's response to Foster
- Brady says for Foster: How could we continue to feel delight in the
presence of something that is harming the env?
- Brady responds: Why is it that aes value takes responsibility in these
situations?
- Morally we do feel need to suppress our enjoyment; we feel
disappointed, betrayed and concerned about env. damage
- But these are moral reasons not aes ones
- Nothing has changed in the aes qualities of sunset: colors remain brilliant
- Is this a retreat to formalism; a retreat to a reductionistic, formalist
view of aesthetics so as to insure moral considerations aren't
relevant?
- But there are changes in the aes qualities of the sunset when it is caused by pollution; here are some:
- The emotional response turns from one of joy, serenity, to
disgust
- The expressive qualities have change: they now embody not
nature's sublimity but human's carelessness
- Imagination sees the red as a metaphor for the blood of the
animals that die because of the pollution
- One imagines the disgusting smell of gas bellowing out of the factory
- What has happened is that we have come to know that the cause of the
beauty is harmful
- But this is a moral issue not aes one
- It makes no sense to say that we feel aes compelled to suppress our pleasure
- Brady claims that what happens in pollution sunset case is that aes value
remains high, but we turn away from the scene on moral grounds and thus
end the aes exp without changing our aes judgment
- Fn 65: Cases where our capacity to perceive aes qualities is blocked by
strong moral objections, where one's morality anaesthetizes one to the
relevant (aes?) features (Eaton's language)
- Brady says this not case of moral defect being aes defect, but rather
where aes app can't get off ground due to a person's moral standpoint
- Aes attention becomes impossible because of a distraction caused by
moral feeling
- But if a work of art is designed so that it evokes such a negative
moral reaction that this makes aes attention to it impossible, why
isn't that an aes defect? Don't artists have job of making their art
accessible, capable of being aes app?
- Maybe could argue something related for nature
- Imagine a case of a movie portrayal of rape and the moral message is that
women deserve this
- It is true that there might be symmetry to the movements, brilliant
colors to appreciate, a bunch of formal aes qualities that could be
attended to but they are blocked by moral outrage
- But the moral outrage could also be relevant to aes qualities other
than formal ones; expressive, imaginative
- Some may continue to enjoy scene but with added feeling of poignancy
- If this added feeling is aesthetics, then the moral aspects
of the situation affect aes response even for Brady
- Their aes delight is accompanied by conflicting moral feeling of
sympathy in face of harm
- Others will feel no conflict
- The two values separate as have different bases
- Aes value concerned with perceptual qualities, emotional and im responses
connected to them as well as meanings that come through app these
qualities
- Meaning of sunset changes with pollution; meaning of a tree/bush
changes when you know it is a harmful invasive exotic
- So aes eval restricted to perceptual, emotional and im experiential states
rather than significantly cognitive ones
- Is her idea that moral considerations are cognitive? But they clearly
also are emotional!
- Moral concerns deal with how we ought to act and treat humans and nature
- She allows that moral considerations can be part of our aes experiences and
that aes considerations part of moral deliberations
- Can they be part of them, in the sense of an aes part?
- But aes and moral values dist and require judgment on own terms
- Exotic example: Can support eradication of exotic on moral grounds but
not inconsistent to continue to find it aes appealing
- This seems like a powerful example in her favor
- BRADY ACCEPTS MODERATE AUTONOMISM
- Which though it says moral and aes autonomous and separate
- Allows that moral considerations sometimes come into play in aes
app
- But if they come to play and are relevant, why can't they affect aes
quality?
- Quoting Anderson and Dean: (I find this very unclear)
- Moral criticism of work can surround aspect of moral subject of
work, moral content can contribute to or detract from aes aspects of
the work
- Never the moral component of the criticism as such that diminishes
the value of artwork qua artwork
- Both sorts of criticism are appro to art, but categories of moral and
aes criticism are conceptually distinct
- Even if it is experientially impossible to tease apart aes and moral-they feel
as one-conceptually we can maintain the dist.
- Moderate autonomism allows that moral considerations have some bearing
on aes app but preserves view that aes judgements are distinct from moral
ones
- AESTHETIC OFFENSES: INSENSITIVE AES ACTIONS
- This section need not be discussed in class
- Acts that are insensitive on aesthetic (not moral?) grounds
- Aes offences
- Acts of tastelessness
- Were nature has been sullied or spoiled by gratuitous human
intrusions which bespeak interference, carelessness or indifference
- littering a beach, defacing cliffs by climbers, tearing up paths by
mountain bikes, stripping hills for ski runs, river damming, raw
sewage disposal, decimation of species
- Some of these sound like moral offenses
- Only humans can commit aes offences, nature can't do this (nor can it have
its own aes view-it does not realize it is being offended)
- Brady interested in how aes offenses show lack of aes sensitivity
- Issue is manner or style of action, which can be aes matter
- Taste in fashioning one's actions: delicate, subtle, awkward, clumsy,
bold, heavy-handed or graceless
- Acting considerately or thoughtlessly are moral not aes facets of action.
- Doing something in aes pleasing or unappealing way doesn't make it better
or worse (morally!):
- One can kill with grace, but still wrong
- The moral story and its manner of representation (aes) can stand alone: one
can fail while the other can't
- She says she is not making strong content/form dist....
- But if they can stand alone then they also may not stand alone in some
cases and here moral defect can be aes defect
- Example of wind farms as a possible aesthetic offence
- Often cited in remote natural areas
- Can have a strong neg visual impact
- Destroy scenic beauty, create noise pollution thus destroying
tranquility, create shadows bother nearby residents
- Positive aes side of wind farms
- Many find turbines attractive, even elegant, create a dist aes impact or
more cultural, artistic kind
- Guides produced for tourists to tour wind farm sites
- Not noisy, but introduce new sounds into the landscape
- Windfarms pos case of aes offence as people think locating them in remote
envs is aes insensitive
- Some env. art may commit aes offense: aes affront to nature
- Aes integrity may be related to avoiding aes offence
- Does not prioritize aes over moral value: can be strong moral reasons to
override aes value, but should be careful to dist two types of value
- The Relationship between aes and ethics 254
- BRADY'S DISCUSSION OF HOW INTIMATE AES AND ETHICAL
VALUES CAN BE
- Ethics is more cognitive and goal oriented than aes
- Cross over in language: sensitivity, integrity, harmony, attentiveness,
appropriateness
- Axiological space not easily distinguished into aes and ethical
- Cross fertilization between the two
- Is Aes the Mother of Ethics? 256
- Aes and moral practices can support each other
- Aes skills contribute to developing moral sensitivity
- some argue that ethics is essentially dependent on aes
- Eaton
- to under morality and become moral person, one's act must have
appro style and content and this requires aes skills
- Making an ethical decision is like choosing one story over another
- Aes skills (perceptual sensitivity, im freedom, creativity, emotional
expression) can help us in our moral lives (both making decisions and in
forming moral character)
- ability to locate and attend to detail, putting together and interpreting
elements, awareness of particulars
- Art, specifically narratives, allow us to "take our emotions for a test drive" without obligation in our response to fictional worlds
- Moral and aes concerns derive from some common sources such as taste and
delicacy of feeling
- In deciding what type of person one ought to be one is regarding one's own
life as a work of art and asking how best to complete it
- Aes and moral domains are not poles apart, for both draw on our capacity
for perceptual sensitivity, imagination and feeling
- AESTHETICS AS A FOUNDATION FOR ENV. ETHICS 258
- Some env. philosophers argue that aes sensitive relation to nature can
engender a benevolent attitude towards it.
- People who find beauty in nature are not inclined to harm it
- Strong feeling of attachment people develop to particular places and
desire to protect them from change and development
- No nec connection between positive aes valuing and moral attitude
towards nature
- Some (many?) People who are aes sensitive app of env do harm it
- Developed aes sensitivity not itself suff to support an env ethic
- She seems to be focusing on if psychologically aes sensitivity leads to
ethical treatment of nature
- My concern is whether philosophically it does.
- If ethics is based on care, it might be difficult to engender care for envs one
has not grown to app aes
- Even if aes engagement and shared exp help encourage a sympathetic
attitude towards nature, moral constraints such as justice are probably
needed as well
- Worries about "aestheticism" toward the env (i.e., the only value the env.
has is aesthetic) and how this can lead to harm to the env. and is a shallow
and reductive approach to the env.
- IA supports a kind of aesthetic respect for nature.