The Virtue of Subtlety and the Vice of a Heavy Hand

King, Alex

doi:10.1093/aesthj/ayw074

Cited by 3 publications

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“…Alex King provides a compelling answer. Subtle art, King says, is “epistemically demanding” (2017: 120). Subtle art demands attention and focus.…”

Section: The Aesthetic Value Of Simplicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The aesthetics of country music

Dyck

2021

Philosophy Compass

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Country music has not gotten much attention in philosophy. I introduce two philosophical issues that country music raises. First, country music is simple. Some people might think that its simplicity makes country music worse; I argue that simplicity is aesthetically valuable. The second issue is country music’s ideal of authenticity; fans and performers think that country should be real or genuine in a particular way. But country music scholars have debunked the idea that country authenticity gets at anything real; widespread ideas about country authenticity are rooted in a racist and fabricated picture of country music. In discussing these two issues, I highlight the importance of community in country music.

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“…Alex King provides a compelling answer. Subtle art, King says, is “epistemically demanding” (2017: 120). Subtle art demands attention and focus.…”

Section: The Aesthetic Value Of Simplicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When we are told what to think we no longer need to be receptive or attentive, nor do we need to draw connections and think through implications of the work ourselves. (King, 2017: 126–127)…”

Section: The Aesthetic Value Of Simplicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The aesthetics of country music

Dyck

2021

Philosophy Compass

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Rethinking Low, Middle, and High Art

Lau

2022

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

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What distinguishes middle, low, and high art? In this article, I give an ameliorative analysis of these concepts. On what I call the Capacity View, the distinction between low, middle, and high art depends on the relation between an artwork’s perceiver (specifically her aesthetic responsive capacities) and the perceived artwork. Though the Capacity View may not align perfectly with folk usage, the view is worth our attention due to three attractive upshots. First, it explains how an artwork’s status level can be elevated or lowered over time and why biases can lead to mistaken judgments about such statuses. Second, it sheds light on the idea of cultural inheritance and why certain forms of aesthetic deference may be justified. Finally, it explains how high, middle, and low art each make distinctive contributions to the good life.

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Autonomy and Aesthetic Engagement

Nguyen

2019

Mind

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There seems to be a deep tension between two aspects of aesthetic appreciation. On the one hand, we care about getting things right. Our attempts at aesthetic judgments aim at correctness. On the other hand, we demand autonomy. We want appreciators to arrive at their aesthetic judgments through their own cognitive efforts, rather than through deferring to experts. These two demands seem to be in tension; after all, if we want to get the right judgments, we should defer to the judgments of experts. How can we resolve this tension? The best explanation, I suggest, is that aesthetic appreciation is something like a game. When we play a game, we try to win. But often, winning isn’t the point; playing is. Aesthetic appreciation involves the same flipped motivational structure: we aim at the goal of correctness, but having correct judgments isn’t the point. The point is the engaged process of interpreting, investigating, and exploring the aesthetic object. When one defers to aesthetic testimony, then, one makes the same mistake as when one looks up the answer to a puzzle, rather than solving it for oneself. The shortcut defeats the whole point. This suggests a new account of aesthetic value: the engagement account. The primary value of the activity of aesthetic appreciation lies in the process of trying to generate correct judgments, and not in having correct judgments.

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The Virtue of Subtlety and the Vice of a Heavy Hand

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

The aesthetics of country music

The aesthetics of country music

Rethinking Low, Middle, and High Art

Autonomy and Aesthetic Engagement

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