Gingerich, Jonathan;
(2025)
Aesthetic Harmony and Aesthetic Agonism.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
, 83
(4)
pp. 318-329.
10.1093/jaac/kpaf043.
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Abstract
The cosmopolitan harmony view of aesthetics holds that an ideal aesthetic world is one where different aesthetic cultures all respect each other and everyone understands how even aesthetic practices that they personally dislike remain valuable for others. Against this view, aesthetic agonism maintains that an ideal world can include deep conflict in which some people regard others’ aesthetic practices or judgments as completely lacking in value even if they are willing to tolerate one another. I argue for aesthetic agonism by showing that the aesthetic conflicts that the cosmopolitan harmony view excludes form an important part of our aesthetic lives. I go on to contend that aesthetic injustice arises not from disagreement or conflict but rather from the failure of democracy that results when our political and economic environment enables some people but not others to participate in shaping our shared aesthetic culture.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Aesthetic Harmony and Aesthetic Agonism |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/jaac/kpaf043 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpaf043 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) (2025). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Aesthetics. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Philosophy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10219689 |
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