American Society for Aesthetics Eastern Division...

AmericanSocietyforAestheticsEasternDivisionMeeting

April28-29,2017BestWesternIndependenceParkHotel

Philadelphia,Pennsylvania

PROGRAM

MonroeBeardsleyLecture,TempleUniversityFriday,5:15pm-7:15pmLocation:TheBarnesFoundationGuidedtouroftheBarnesFoundation:7:30pm–9pmGuidedtouroftheBarnesFoundation:7:30pm–9pmReceptionatLondonGrill,2301-2303FairmountAvenue,beginningat8:30PM CynthiaFreeland,ProfessorofPhilosophy(UniversityofHouston)“GenreandArtisticValueRevisited”Critics perennially deride works in popular genres such as mysteries, romancenovels,Westerns,andsciencefiction.EdmundWilsonblasteddetectivefictionbackin 1945 as “devoid of creative or artistic interest.” Sci-fi authorUrsulaK. LeGuinnoteswithirritationthatwhenCormacMcCarthywritesasortofsci-fiinTheRoad,heisexcusedofthesinof“committinggenre.”McCarthyalsohasbeenpraisedfor“finishingoff”theWesternnovelinhisBloodMeridian.InthistalkIwillfollowupon a promising defense of genre offered by Noël Carroll in his 1998 book APhilosophyofMassArt. Iwill develop thisdefense in relation to twoexamplesofgenres,mysteriesandWesterns,andexplainhowandwhytheyengageus.Myfocusisontheroleofthecentralcharacters,settings,andmoodsinprovidingreadersorviewers with moral insight. Examples will be drawn from what has been called“Nordic Noir” detective fictions and from Western films, in particular, thosefeaturingClintEastwood.

2

PlenaryLectureSaturday,5pm-7pmLocation:BestWesternIndependenceParkHotel,WilliamPennRoomReceptiontofollowJerroldLevinson,DistinguishedUniversityProfessorofPhilosophy(UniversityofMaryland,CollegePark)“ArtistandAesthete:ADualPortrait” Twooftheprincipalrolesorpositionsoridentitiesintheaesthetic/artisticsituationare thoseof artist andaesthete.The former isobviouslyprimarilya creative role,while the latter isobviouslyprimarilyanappreciativerole.Andtheseroles,asweknow, are also interdependent: aestheteswould have little, or at any rate less, toappreciate without artists; while artists would have little, or at any rate less,creative motivation without appreciators, with aesthetes as the most importantvanguardtherein.

Butwhatmore significantlydifferentiates artist andaesthete?Do thebasicimpulsesofthetwotribescoincide,oraretheyratherinconflict?Isbeinganartistfully compatiblewith being an aesthete, ormight there be a fundamental tensionbetweenthoseidentities?Arethesametalents,inclinations,andattitudesessentialtobeingasuccessfulartistthosewhichgenerallymakeforasuccessfulaesthete,oraretheyatsomelevelatwarwithoneanother?

Mytalkwillbedevotedtoexploringthosequestions,inthecourseofwhichprofiles of the artist and the aesthete will be offered, and to looking at someconcrete cases in the hope of illuminating those questions, of figures such asBeethoven and Van Gogh, on the one hand, and figures such as OscarWilde andJoris-KarlHuysmans’ fictionalcharacterDesEsseintes,ontheotherhand. Ishouldsay,inadvance,thatthenotionofaestheteIultimatelyforegroundandjuxtaposetothatof theartist isnot thestereotypicalonerepresentedbysuchasWildeorDesEsseintes, but rather something closer to the notion of an idealappreciator of artandtheaesthetic.

3

Thursday,April27HotelLobby6pm-?RegistrationFriday,April28(P)WilliamPennRoom(R)BetsyRossRoom9am–11am(P)Panel:“EthicsandAestheticsintheEarlyNietzsche”Chair:RichardEldridge(SwarthmoreCollege)KatieBrennan(Temple),“Nietzsche’sHamletPuzzle.”TomHanauer(U.ofCalifornia-Riverside),“Nietzsche’sAestheticCommunitarianism.”NolanHatley(U.ofTennessee-Knoxville),“AestheticExperiencesofNaturein

Nietzsche'sEarlyEthics.”(R)MusicChair:DiegoMalquori(TheCooperUnion)ClémentCanonne(IRCAM,Paris,andU.ofMaryland,CollegePark),“Listeningto

Improvisation.”Comment:DavidClowney(Rowan).JayMiller(WarrenWilsonCollege),“TowardanAestheticsof‘Heaviness’inHeavy

Metal,OrWhySleep’sJerusalemistheHeaviestAlbumEverRecorded.”Comment:JonathanNeufeld(CollegeofCharleston).

MatteoRavasio(U.ofAuckland),“MusicalAtmospheres:BetweenExpressionandRepresentation.”Comment:JohnFisher(U.ofColoradoBoulder).

__________11:15am–12:45pm(P)FictionandInterpretationChair:AlexNeill(U.ofSouthampton)FrankBoardman(DickinsonCollege),“ASuggestionforaLogicofFiction.”

Comment:RoyCook(U.ofMinnesota).Szu-YenLin(U.ofAuckland),“IsBeardsleyaContextualist?”Comment:Daniel

Nathan(TexasTech).(R)Kitsch,Poetry,andKnowledgeChair:RacielCuevas(Temple)EvaDadlez(U.ofCentralOklahoma),“KitschandBullshitasCasesofAestheticand

EpistemicBadFaith.”Comment:BrianSoucek(U.ofCalifornia-Davis).NoelleLesliedelaCruz(DeLaSalle,Philippines),“CanPoemsPhilosophize?”

Comment:SarahWorth(Furman).

4

12:45pm–2:15pmLunch__________2:15pm–4:15pm(P)OntologyofArtChair:JasonLeddington(Bucknell)JohnDyck(CUNYGraduateCenter),“AreArtKindsMedium-Sized?”Comment:

AlexeyAliyev(U.ofMaryland,CollegePark).JoshuaMyers(U.ofMiami),“Plays,Productions,andPerformances:AnOntologyof

Theater.”Comment:SusanFeagin(Temple).Michel-AntoineXhignesse(McGill),“ThreeProblemsforArt-Ontological

Descriptivism.”Comment:BrockRough(U.ofMaryland,CollegePark).(R)Panel:“TeachingDanceAesthetics”Chair:JulieVanCamp(CaliforniaSate,

LongBeach)ReneeConroy(PurdueU.Northwest),AnnaPakes(Roehampton),GregoryScott(NYU),JulieVanCamp(CaliforniaState,LongBeach)._________5:15pm-7:15pmMonroeBeardsleyLecture,TempleUniversityLocation:TheBarnesFoundationCynthiaFreeland,ProfessorofPhilosophy(UniversityofHouston)“GenreandArtisticValueRevisited”GuidedtouroftheBarnesFoundation:7:30pm–9pmReceptionatLondonGrill,2301-2303FairmountAvenue:8:30PM

5

Saturday,April29(P)WilliamPennRoom(R)BetsyRossRoom9am–11am(P)InvitedPanel:“TheCognitiveRelevanceofAesthetics”Chair:CaseyHaskins(PurchaseCollege)HanneAppelqvist(U.ofHelsinki),JukkaMikkonen(U.ofTampere),andKallePuolakka(U.ofHelsinki)(R)InvitedPanel:“GameAesthetics”Chair:BrandonCooke(MinnesotaStateMankato)ThiNguyen(UtahValley),ShelbyMoser(AzuzaPacific),andAndrewEdgar(Cardiff).__________11:15am–12:45pm(P)DanceandFashionChair:MarcStrauss(SoutheastMissouriState)RomainBigé(ÉcoleNormaleSupérieuredeParis,andSmithCollege),“TonicSpace:

TowardaDanceAestheticofWeight.”Comment:ReneeConroy(PurdueU.Northwest).

GlennParsons(Ryerson),“IsFashionanAestheticPursuit?”Comment:CarolS.Gould(FloridaAtlantic).

(R)PaintingandComputerArtChair:JohnCarvalho(Villanova)IvanGaskell(BardGraduateCenter),“CrackingUpwithPietMondrian.”Comment:

JohnBrown(U.ofMaryland,CollegePark).EranGuter,(MaxSternYezreelValleyCollege,Israel),“BeyondtheMuseum

ConceptionofComputerArt.”Comment:JavierGomez-Lavin(CUNY).

6

(R)ASABusinessMeetingLunch12:45pm–2:15pm__________2:15pm–4:15pm(P)ArtisticandAestheticValueChair:AlessandroGiovannelli(LafayetteCollege)MojcaKüplen(UniversityofRioGrandedoSul,Brazil),“KantandAesthetic

ComprehensionofAbstractandEmotionConcepts.”Comment:LaraOstaric(Temple).

PanosParis(U.ofSt.Andrews,Scotland),“EvaluativeFormandthePossibilityofMoralBeauty.”Comment:VirginiaAita(Independentscholar).

RobertStecker(CentralMichigan),“DefiningArtisticValue:TheCompositeViewvs.theBuckPassingTheory.”Comment:DeborahKnight(Queen’sUniversity,Canada).

(R)Panel:“TheUseofPoetryinTeachingPhilosophy”Chair:MichaelBoylan(Marymount)MichaelBoylan(Marymount),FeliciaNimueAckerman(Brown),KellyJolley(Auburn).__________5pm-7pmJerroldLevinson,DistinguishedUniversityProfessorofPhilosophy(UniversityofMaryland,CollegePark)“ArtistandAesthete:ADualPortrait”Receptiontofollow