Pondělí 3. 4. 2023

16:00-17:30

A11

FF MU


                                           3. dubna 2023

                                     dr. Mark Richard Windsor

                                        Masaryk University


                          Transformational Creativity and Aesthetic Value









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Abstract


‘Experientialism’ in aesthetics is the view that aesthetic value is grounded in the value of
experiences of a certain kind, typically pleasurable or finally valuable experiences.
Experientialism has been described as the ‘default theory’ of aesthetic value. However, in recent
years, a growing number of objections have mounted up against it, and increasingly theorists have
been developing alternative views. Most prominent among these are Dominic Lopes’s ‘network theory’
of aesthetic value, and a ‘primitivist’ theory of aesthetic value, the outlines of which can be
found in the work of James Shelley and Keren Gorodeisky. In this talk, I defend experientialism by
arguing that these competing accounts fail to explain a phenomenon that must be of central
importance for thinking about the nature of aesthetic value: aesthetic creativity.

Both the network theory and primitivism locate the source of aesthetic value in objects, rather
than experiences. But whereas primitivism locates aesthetic value simply in objects as a property
that merits universal pleasure, the network theory explains aesthetic value in terms of achievement
value, where achievement is understood in terms of acting in alignment with an aesthetic profile
that is constitutive of an aesthetic practice. First, I argue that the network theory fails to
explain the value of what I call ‘transformational’ aesthetic creations that exceed existing
aesthetic profiles. Second, I argue that primitivism fails to accommodate the creative agency that
spectators have in constituting the aesthetic qualities of objects in non-art contexts, which
objects can appropriately be experienced in a variety of ways. Of the three views, only
experientialism readily explains the cases in question: according to experientialism, aesthetic
creations are valuable (if they are valuable) because the experience of them is valuable.