Being for Beauty: Aesthetic Agency and Value

283 Pages·2018·1.27 MB·English

by  Dominic McIver Lopes

Being for Beauty

Being for Beauty
Aesthetic Agency and Value
Dominic McIver Lopes
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For Kristen Lopes
In memory of Maria Alexandra Clementina D’Souza Lopes

Preface
Being for Beauty: the words map three paths into this book’s topic, aesthetic
value.Puttingthestresson“beauty”contrastsaestheticvaluewithothergoods—
socialjustice,insightfulscholarship,friendship,ortheTorontoMapleLeafs.We
ask,howdoesaestheticvaluedifferfromtheseothergoods,andhowdoesitfare
incompetitionwiththem?Puttingthestressonthe“for”highlightstheattitudes
wetaketoaestheticvalue.Whatisittobefororagainstaestheticvalue?Isitto
likeit,orpromoteit,orassenttoitsgoodness?Bothpathsareworthmapping:a
theoryofaestheticvalueshouldsaywhatmakesitunique,andalsohowweorient
ourselvestowardsit.Thisbookpresentsatheoryofaestheticvaluebyputtingthe
stress on being for beauty. Being for beauty is a configuration of human agency
orientedonaestheticvalues.
Mysecretplan,orhope,fortwentyyearshasbeentobuildupfromadetailed
examinationofoneartformtowardsageneraltheoryofaestheticvalue.Under-
standing Pictures (1996) treats images as blending language-like and perceptual
elements,inamergerofthetwomostimportantinformation-processingsystems
of the brain, yielding the amazing diversity of depictive styles that thrive in
differentpragmaticandculturalcontexts. Asequel, Sight andSensibility:Evalu-
atingPictures(2005),locatesthevaluesofimagesintheirextendingthepowersof
perception,includingthepowertoexpressemotions.However,akeymoveofthe
book distinguished the values images have as images from their aesthetic value,
andIwasdisappointedthatthedistinctionfailedtoimpress,despiteitstouching
on heated debates about ethicism (esp. Carroll 1996; Jacobson 1997; Devereaux
1998;Kieran2001;Devereaux2004;Stecker2005;Gaut2007).
Resolved to one day revisit the failure, I meanwhile turned to computer art,
which I saw as an opportunity to investigate how materials and technologies
generateartisticandaestheticpossibilities.APhilosophyofComputerArt(2009)
alsoassembledthecomponentsofacomprehensivephilosophyofanartform—
thatis,atheoryofthenatureoftheartform,anontologyofworksintheartform,
aframeworkforcriticismandappreciation,plusadefenceofitsstatusasanart.It
would have been madness to attempt this with any of the well-established arts,
butgettingabigpictureofanartformprovedcrucialtounderstandingthearts
andaestheticdomainsingeneral.
Generalizingfromthespecialcasesofdepictionandcomputerart,BeyondArt
(2014a) sets out a framework for building theories of any of the arts. The
viii PREFACE
framework pairs the materials and technologies of each art form with a set of
practice-constitutive norms, the cultural side of the story. In proof of concept,
FourArtsofPhotography(2016b)usestheframeworkfromBeyondArttorigout
anewtheoryofphotographicartpractices,andtotiethattheoryintothehistory
ofphotography.
In Sight and Sensibility, I had underestimated how hard it has become for
philosopherstoseepastanassumedequationofartisticandaestheticvalue.The
frameworksetoutinBeyondArtputsthespecificitiesoftheartsatthecentreof
theory-building, and it implies that an item’s artistic value is just its value as a
work of painting, music, dance, or one of the other arts (cf. Huddleston 2012;
Stecker 2012; Hanson 2013). Since there is no more general artistic value, it
seems like a good idea to retain a conception of aesthetic value alongside the
values of the specific arts. Only aesthetic value resides in all the arts, and in
much else besides.
A “Plea for Aesthetics” opened Sight and Sensibility and the “diversity con-
straint” of Understanding Pictures already allies aesthetics to the philosophy of
culture, so this book about aesthetic agency and value has been a long time
coming.Fromthebeginning,Ihavebeencommittedtomethodsthatcoordinate
theexplanatorypowerofgeneralizationwithcloseattentiontolivedreality—for
details, see Aesthetics on the Edge: Where Philosophy Meets the Human Sciences
(Lopes2018).Hencethebottom-uptrajectoryofthebooksdescribedabove.The
challengehasalwaysbeentoknowwheretolookforlivedaestheticreality.
While imagination kits us out to travel to unfamiliar territory, nothing beats
first-handexperience,andthebreakthroughinsightcamefromatimeofimmer-
sion in Japanese aesthetic culture. For several months, meeting weekly in a
seminarwithyoungartistsandscholars,interactingwithfriendsandneighbours,
justgreedilywatchingandlistening,Iwasblownawaybythetextureofaesthetic
activityinJapan,bythefinedetailsofwhatpeopledoinordertogiveexpression
totheiraestheticcommitments.Inthatcontext,itdawnedonmethatphilosophy
hasstruggledtocometotermswithaestheticvaluebecauseithasrelieduponan
attenuatedportraitofaestheticagencyasconsistinginthemakingofjudgements.
Theremedyistoforegroundrichandrobustexpressionsofaestheticagencythat
involve more than judging. Of course aesthetic agency belongs to no single
people—we are all aesthetic agents—but what is hard for us to see in ourselves
isveryoftenobviouswhenweobserveothersactiveinadifferentculture.
Some astonishing confessions mark key moments of Derek Parfit’s On What
Matters(2011).Parfitthoughtthathislifewouldnothavebeenworthlivingwere
the main ideas of his book to turn out false. Philosophy lets us down when it
hardensusagainstsuchpersonalappealsasParfit’s.Wemustrespecthowdeeply
PREFACE ix
important philosophy can be in the life of a philosopher. I do not say that the
main ideas of this book must be true. We are only beginning to think about
aestheticvalue,andwhatweneedaboveallistolayavariedandenticingmenuof
optionsandargumentsonthetable.Allthesame,IdoadmitthatIcannotimagine
mycareerhavingamountedtomuchwithoutmyhavingattemptedtotakeafresh
approachtobeauty,rootingforitsimportanceasatopicofphilosophy.
Apostscriptforfellowstylegeeks,giventhebook’sthemethataestheticagency
must be understood as thriving in local social niches. I routinely compose in
British and U.S. English, though I am as much Canadian as anything else, so
IhaveputthisvolumeinCanadianEnglish.Itrustthat’sskookum.
D.M.L.
Vancouver
January2018