Ethical Autonomism: The Work of Art as a Moral Agent

2015

The art world seems to be dedicated to bad art. That is ethically bad art. By analyzing the work of Damian Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Vannessa Beecroft, this account works to decipher the definition of morals according to Georgio Vasari and how they amplify the artists who work tirelessly to defy this moral.

works and arts. Its main aim is to underscore the correlation of art and morality and to analyze, contrast , and interpret the functions, meaning ,sense and applications of art in different time or period. This Article is prepared by reviewing the period and time of English literature related to these issues.

Paul Macneill (ed.) Ethics and the Arts. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, and London: Springer, 2014

This chapter explores the nature of any relationship between ethics and the arts. At one time, the dominant position in the philosophy of art was that there was no relationship. Aesthetics and ethics were seen as autonomous spheres. The various ‘new moralists’ argue that, in some circumstances, there is a relationship. Noël Carroll and Berys Gaut, for example, argue that moral ‘flaws’ in some works of art may detract from the work’s aesthetic value, while others, such as Daniel Jacobson and Matthew Kieran, counter that a morally reprehensible quality in a work may contribute positively to its aesthetic value. Although the polarities are reversed, both of these positions accept that there is—or may be—a relationship between morality and aesthetics. Others however take a less theoretically based view in acknowledging that there may be a relationship in which a moral quality is seen to add to, or detract, from the aesthetic value a work of art, but that this can only be maintained by a critical assessment of a particular work of art and not by rigid application of theory. This chapter sides with those who are resistant to applying prior moral standards in judging art and puts the view that ethics and aesthetics are independent discourses, although they potentially illuminate one another. The chapter also explores whether moral repugnance, in responding to particular works of art, such as any of Michel Houellebecq’s novels, can be indicative of aesthetic merit or deficiency. It is argued however that no one aspect (moral, affective, or cognitive) can be assumed, in advance, to trump another, and the relative weight given to any of these, is itself a part of a reflection on the aesthetic merit of a particular artwork.

Art and morality share a complex, almost paradoxical, intersection of interests; often an offence levied against one is offered the possibility of acceptance in the another. But art is not created in an environment of isolation; they are to a certain extent bound by the rules of society, the socio-cultural space of whose landscape it utilises for its creation, reception and preservation. And the moral codes of the society are often guilty of cultural relativism and religious or historical dogmatism. Hence, neither the fair practice of Art without any moral obligations nor social ethics without consideration for artistic freedom can be accepted when theorising a rationally founded cultural utopia. The present paper engages with the particular issue of animal treatment in contemporary artistic practices to rear further insights on the legitimacy of using moral standards as an evaluatory framework to judge art objects and the aesthetic value of 'immoral' art.

The Journal of Value Inquiry, 2011

Paul Macneill (ed.) Ethics and the Arts. Amsterdam: Springer, 2014

This book is a collection of invited essays on Ethics and the Arts. Most of the chapters were written without each author being familiar with other chapters and there is (unsurprisingly) a range of different approaches taken. Nevertheless, there is also a considerable degree of coherence between the chapters, which I aim to bring out in this concluding chapter. My further aim is to examine the ways (in the particularities of each chapter) in which the arts can, and do, make a major contribution to ethics. As discussed briefly in the Introduction, I consider that the relationship between ethics and the arts is two-way. In this book, ethical concerns are discussed within the arts—but so too is ethics considered from the vantage point of the arts. In this chapter I take up this idea from both angles, in discussing the approaches taken by various authors toward ethics within their artform, as well as in drawing insights from the discussions of various ideas, art theories and practices, and a range of other disciplines, that may offer broader understandings of ethics. There are ethical issues that concern artists and a good many of them have been captured in chapters of this book. This concluding chapter is organised around the ethical issues I have drawn from the preceding chapters and these are represented by the sub-headings below. Included (for example) are: ‘intercultural issues in making art’; and ‘art as an alternative approach to understanding ethics.’ In compiling this book I have been particularly interested in the last of these: drawing understandings about ethics from the arts, and applying these in ways that may enrich our understanding of ethics more broadly.

2007

What is art's function today, in the early 21 st century? It is argued here that, while art's function has changed dramatically throughout history, its formal features are usually regarded as being paramount in ascertaining whether something is art or not. It is further argued, with reference to specific works by contemporary artists (Serrano, Mapplethorpe and Reggio), that it is impossible, and inadvisable, to reduce the importance of art to its formal-aesthetic properties, as some people tend to do. Moreover, while the formal and the conceptual aspects of art are linked, there is reason to promote certain functions, such as the ethical, the critical and ecological, at the cost of reducing others (such as the commercial) in the contemporary world.

1998

Ordinary discourse about film is pervasively ethical. From our casual conversations about the moral status of cinematic villains and heroines, through debates about the effects of the portrayal of violence by Hollywood International, to arguments about the portrayal of sex and sexuality, film talk is intimately tied up with ethical concerns and evaluations. It seems to me that the philosophy of film should take this discourse seriously, and attempt to offer an account of the importance of the ethical to the cinematic.

The principal focus of the essay is the idea of artistic value, understood as the value of a work of art as the work of art it is, and the essay explores the connections, if any, between artistic value and a variety of other values (social, moral, educational, and character-building) in human life. I start with a series of observations about social values and then turn to moral values. Beginning from Goethe's claim that 'music cannot affect morality, nor can the other arts, and it would be wrong to expect them to do so' , I proceed from music through the other arts; I distinguish different conceptions of morality; I highlight what I call a work of art's positive moral value (its power for moral improvement); and I distinguish three kinds of moral improvement, one taking pride of place. My conclusion is that the positive moral value of works of art has been greatly overrated. I then return to the social values of art, looking at the situation from a very different point of view and reaching new conclusions, some of them positive. I end by explaining why my observations and arguments about the positive moral value of a work of art in no way diminishes the importance of art in human life, the true end of art having an importance in human life not guaranteed by morality.

Choice Reviews Online, 2009

Blackwell's New Directions in Aesthetics series highlights ambitious single-and multiple-author books that confront the most intriguing and pressing problems in aesthetics and the philosophy of art today. Each book is written in a way that advances understanding of the subject at hand and is accessible to upper-undergraduate and graduate students.

Art, Emotion and Value Proceedings of the 5th …, 2011

Etica&Politica, 2021

My aim here is to provide a context within which we can develop an applied ethical criticism of narrative art-one which has a public relevance and is not limited to philosophical discussions characterized by value-interaction debate or conducted under the theoretical banner of aesthetic cognitivism. In the first part I reinforce the challenge of finding empirical evidence which either corroborates or denies the cognitivist's claim regarding the causal impact of art on the audience, and I argue, in the second part, that such evidence is needed in order to determine the possibility of moral corruption and/or moral enhancement via art. Taking cues from Ted Nannicelli, I end by offering pointers on domains of research we should incorporate into our ethical criticism of art, so as to come up with an informed understanding of an artwork and of spectators' engagements with it.

Ethics and the Arts. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, and London: Springer, 2014

This chapter explores morality in relation to painting in three eras: early modern painting, painting in the twentieth century, and painting from the end of the twentieth century and through into this century. Two early modern painters (from the mid-1600s) are considered in comparison with two modern painters as a way of highlighting significant differences within and between early modern and modern eras. From the end of the nineteenth century, modern painting was a closely associated with the avant-garde and its hopes for moral and social renewal led by artists. But, after two world wars, these hopes had turned to despair and scepticism, and artists had turned to the absurd in Dada, and increasingly away from figurative or expressive work toward abstract painting, minimalism, and subsequently to Pop-art. There was little from any of these movements that engaged—with any seriousness—moral, social or political issues. There were moral issues raised by the relationship between money and art as an enterprise, but few prominent artists expressed issues of moral concern in their work. Nevertheless there were notable exceptions, and throughout the twentieth century some artists continued to work in figurative and expressive forms. Major artists, including Picasso and Diego Rivera, along with less prominent artists such as Ben Shahn, have painted works that expressed moral concern. Since the 1980s, figurative painting has regained its importance and this has brought attention to artists like Luc Tuymans and Marlene Dumas who raise—or at least allude to—subjects with moral overtones. In summary, this chapter addresses shifts from the role of art as moral instruction in early modern painting; to the high hopes for moral renewal through modern painting that were ultimately disappointed in the twentieth century; and on to the more enigmatic and elusive images of moral concern expressed by painters in this century.

2021

The #metoo movement has forced many fans to consider what they should do when they learn that a beloved artist has acted immorally. One natural thought is that fans ought to give up the artworks of immoral artists. In Why It's OK to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists, Mary Beth Willard argues for a more nuanced view. Enjoying art is part of a well-lived life, so we need good reasons to give it up. And it turns out good reasons are hard to find.Willard shows that it's reasonable to believe that most boycotts of artists won't succeed, so most of the time there's no ethical reason to join in. Someone who manages to separate the art from the artist isn't making an ethical mistake by buying and enjoying their art. She then considers the ethical dimensions of canceling artists and the so-called "cancel culture," arguing that canceling is ethically risky because it encourages moral grandstanding. Willard concludes by arguing that the popular debate has overlooked the power of art to change our lives for the good. It's of course OK to decide to give up the artwork of immoral artists, but -as Willard shows in this provocative little volume -it's OK to continue to enjoy their art as well.