Iris Vidmar Jovanović: Dangers of Art. Plato’s Call to Censorship in Contemporary Aesthetics

Iris Vidmar Jovanović (Rijeka University), badatelka, která se zabývá filozofií literatury a Kantovou estetikou, a tajemnice Evropské společnosti pro estetiku, vystoupí v rámci cyklu přednášek Contemporary European Aesthetics, který pořádá Katedra estetiky FF UK ve spolupráci se Společností pro estetiku při AV ČR.

Její přednáška je součástí cyklu podpořeného projektem European Aesthetics in the 21st Century a je dodatkem ke stejnojmennému kurzu. Přednášky se konají každý čtvrtek v měsíci květnu 2021. Každý je vítán.

Anotace přednášky:
Over the last few years, several prominent philosophers of art have written extensively on the ‘ethics of engagement’ with art (Plantinga). Some have considered the possibility of sanctioning the artists for the immoral dimension of their works or of their deeds in creating the works (Nannicelli), while others have defended the art’s autonomy and insisted on separating it from their creators (Harold). All the while, the artists themselves keep offering us new challenges regarding the ethical evaluation and criticism of their creations. Whether it is their character or that of their work that is morally contentious, or both, it seems that Plato’s worries regarding the capacity of art to morally corrupt us have never been more plausible. My aim in this talk is to examine some of the current proposals regarding the ethical criticism of art. I will argue that to face Plato’s challenges, we need to understand better the imaginative, affective, and cognitive dimension of our art experiences. My proposal is to approach the challenge of the ethical criticism of art from an informed perspective, one which takes into consideration the context of art-creation and what exactly goes on in our minds and bodies as we engage with an artwork.