Experimental Philosophical Aesthetics as Public Philosophy

Experimental philosophy offers an alternative mode of engagement for public philosophy, in which the public can play a participatory role. We organized two public events on the aesthetics of coffee that explored this alternative mode of engagement. The first event focuses on issues surrounding the communication of taste. The second event focuses on issues concerning ethical influences on taste. In this paper, we report back on these two events which explored the possibility of doing experimental philosophical aesthetics as public philosophy. We set the stage by considering the significance and current state of efforts in public philosophy, and by introducing the emerging sub-discipline of experimental philosophical aesthetics. Then, we discuss the research and outreach aspects of the two events on the aesthetics of coffee. Finally, we conclude by reflecting on the prospects and potential pitfalls of experimental philosophy as public philosophy

Dual Character Art Concepts

Our goal in this paper is to articulate a novel account of the ordinary concept ART. At the core of our account is the idea that a puzzle surrounding our thought and talk about art is best understood as just one instance of a far broader phenomenon. In particular, we claim that one can make progress on this puzzle by drawing on research from cognitive science on dual character concepts. Thus, we suggest that the very same sort of phenomenon that is associated with ART can also be found in a broad class of other dual character concepts, including SCIENTIST, CHRISTIAN, GANGSTER, and many others. Instead of focusing narrowly on the case of ART, we try to offer a more general account of these concepts and the puzzles to which they give rise. Then, drawing on the general theory, we introduce a series of hypotheses about art concepts, and put those hypotheses to the test in three experimental studies

Aesthetics And Popular Art: An Interview With Aaron Meskin

As is usually the case with what I work on, I read some stuff I liked. I 1 read an article on comics by Greg Hayman and Henry Pratt and some work on 2 videogames,GrantTavinor’sreallyexcellentworkonthattopic. Ifoundthematerial interesting and I thought I had something to say about it. That’s what usually motivates me and that’s what did in these cases. With comics, my interest in the medium played a big role. I was a child collector of Marvel. I got turned on to independent and alternative comics about ten years ago by a good friend who’s a successful comics artist and that played a role in my writing about comics

Deciding Death: Capital Punishment in America

Laurie JohnsonAmerican comedian Dan Miller once said that “the death penalty is becoming a way of life in this country.” With more than 1,400 executions and over 150 death row exonerations since 1973, it’s hard to disagree with him1. As more and more people are exonerated from death row each year, it is important to once again question the constitutional validity of the death penalty. It is becoming increasingly clearer that the death penalty, especially implemented as a deterrent, is becoming obsolete. Not only is it obsolete, but without an absolute guarantee of guilt, regrettably cruel as well. In this paper, I will argue that the United States government lacks the legitimate authority to execute criminals via capital punishment due to the arbitrary influence of race in capital sentencing. For the purposes of this paper, I will assume that the death penalty is morally permissible and that the Eighth Amendment does not, on its own, rule out capital punishment. The focus of my paper will be that, in light of the Fourteenth Amendment, the state fails to respect the equal status of African-Americans in capital sentencing and that this failure compromises the state’s legitimacy in implementing capital punishment, thereby making capital punishment unconstitutional under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment