"This volume is about how and whether art can be morally bad (or morally good). Politicians, media pundits, and others frequently complain that particular works of art are morally dangerous, or, sometimes, that particular works are morally edifying (the ""great works"" of literature, for example). But little attention is often given to the question of what makes art morally good in the first place. This comprehensive volume of forty-five new essays explores a wide variety of historical and theoretical perspectives, looking at different art forms and different problems.
Each section of the volume samples a mix of topics that have been widely discussed alongside those that have been less noticed by philosophers. What emerges is a sense of the great variety of different problems and approaches as well as some recurring and overlapping themes. The essays in this volume put forth a deliberate effort to stretch beyond some of the debates and problems most familiar to Anglophone philosophers. Familiar topics and positions have been placed side by side in the volume with new and neglected ones, sometimes suggesting surprising connections and conflicts. The volume is divided into four sections: Historical Perspectives, Theoretical Approaches, Individual Arts, and Problems. Chapters in ""Historical Perspectives"" cover significant historical and cultural periods in which philosophical debates about ethics and art became salient, from ancient Greece and China to Japan, the Harlem Renaissance, and beyond. These chapters show the wide variety of different concrete practices that were associated with the idea of ""art,"" as well as the great range of approaches to thinking about what constitutes an ""ethical"" concern. The section on ""Theoretical Approaches"" takes up questions about the relationship between moral and aesthetic evaluation, moral theories, and the familiar debate between ""moralists,"" ""autonomists,"" and others. The section on ""Individual Arts"" considers how moral questions arise in distinctive ways for different art forms, including traditional arts such as music, literature, and painting, and newer art forms such as video games. The final section, ""Problems,"" takes up a variety of special ethical problems that arise in the arts, such as forgery, cultural appropriation, and moral learning."
Chapter 1: Introduction James Harold Part I: Historical Perspectives on Ethics and Art Chapter 2: Ethics and the Arts in Early China Eric L. Hutton Chapter 3: Ancient Greek Philosophers on Art and Ethics: How Can Immoral Art be Ethically Beneficial? Pierre Destrée Chapter 4: Art and Ethics in Islam Oliver Leaman Chapter 5: Ethically-Grounded Nature of Japanese Aesthetic Sensibility Yuriko Saito Chapter 6: Art, Ethics, and Value in the Modern Aesthetic Tradition Timothy M. Costelloe Chapter 7: The Knowledge that Joins Ethics to Art in Yorùbá Culture Barry Hallen Chapter 8: Art and Ethics in India in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Nalini Bhushan and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra Chapter 9: Art and Ethics: Formalism Michalle Gal Chapter 10: Harlem Renaissance: An Interpretation of Racialized Art and Ethics Jacoby Adeshi Carter and Sheena Michele Mason Chapter 11: Evolution of Art and Moral Concerns in New China: From Mao Zedong's Yenan Talks to Xi Jinping's Speech on Artistic Practice Eva Kit Wah Man Part II: Theoretical Approaches to Ethics and Art Chapter 12: Meta-ethics and Meta-aesthetics Alex King Chapter 13: Distinguishing between Ethics and Aesthetics Moonyoung Song Chapter 14: Relativism and the Ethical Criticism of Art Ted Nannicelli Chapter 15: Kantian Approaches to Ethical Judgment of Artworks Sandra Shapshay Chapter 16: Consequentialist Approaches to Ethical Judgment of Artworks Scott Woodcock Chapter 17: Virtue Aesthetics, Art, and Ethics Nancy E. Snow Chapter 18: Feminism, Ethics, and Art Amy Mullin Chapter 19: Autonomism Nils-Hennes Stear Chapter 20: Moralism Noël Carroll Chapter 21: Immoralism and Contextualism Daniel Jacobson Chapter 22: Aestheticism Becca Rothfeld Part III: Ethical Issues in Individual Arts Chapter 23: Painting Elisabeth Schellekens Chapter 24: Ethics and Literature Peter Lamarque Chapter 25: Film Carl Plantinga Chapter 26: Ethics and Music Kathleen Higgins Chapter 27: Some Moral Features of Theatrical Art James R. Hamilton Chapter 28: Dance Ethics Aili Whalen Chapter 29: Architecture Saul Fisher Chapter 30: Ethics and Video Games Christopher Bartel Chapter 31: Art and Pornography: Ethical Issues A.W. Eaton Chapter 32: Humor Ethics Paul Butterfield Chapter 33: Monuments and Memorials: Ethics Writ Large Jeanette Bicknell, Jennifer Judkins, and Carolyn Korsmeyer Chapter 34: Ethical Issues in Internet Culture and New Media Anthony Cross Part IV: Ethical Problems in the Arts Chapter 35: Ethics of Artistic Authorship Karen Gover Chapter 36: Group Agency, Alienation, and Public Art Mary Beth Willard Chapter 37: Immoral Artists Erich Hatala Matthes Chapter 38: Cultural Appropriation C. Thi Nguyen and Matthew Strohl Chapter 39: Forgery Darren Hudson Hick Chapter 40: Art, Ethics, and Vandalism Sondra Bacharach Chapter 41: Censorship and Selective Support for the Arts Brian Soucek Chapter 42: Art, Race, and Racism Adriana Clavel-Vázquez Chapter 43: Representation, Identity, and Ethics in Art Paul C. Taylor Chapter 44: Ethics and Imagination Joy Shim and Shen-yi Liao Chapter 45: Moral Learning from Art Eileen John
James Harold is Professor of Philosophy at Mount Holyoke College, and the author of Dangerous Art: On Moral Criticism of Artworks (Oxford University Press, 2020). He is the former Director of the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts. He has published widely in ethics and aesthetics, with a focus on imaginative engagement with artworks, audience engagement and interpretation, meta-ethics and meta-aesthetics, and the philosophies of ancient Greece and pre-Han China.
