The 1st Art & Ethics Prague Conference

Organized by Department of Analytic Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences

Further information

What Future for the Ethical Criticism of Art? Contemporary Debates, Arguments, and Ideas

Up to now, the debate in the ethical criticism of art took place mainly between autonomism holding that art cannot be valued ethically and different types of ethicism holding that it can. However, it seems the debate might take a new turn thanks to the contribution of Ted Nannicelli (2020) who distinguishes the interpretation-oriented and the production-oriented approach. The former, more common view consists of ethical assessment of the attitude expressed by a work. The latter approach consists of assessment of a work in terms of how and by whom it was produced. The aim of this conference is to discuss how the debates in ethical criticism of art may be affected by the production-oriented approach, resp. by the increasing interest of the critics in the ways of creation of works and the moral integrity of authors. We will focus on the following questions:

May the aesthetic or artistic value of art be conditioned by the ethical flaws in the creation of the work or by the immoral conduct of the author?

Is production-oriented criticism of art compatible with the interpretation-oriented criticism? If yes, might there be an interaction between the two approaches?

Does autonomism require new strategies to challenge the production-oriented criticism or may the present autonomist objections against ethicism be applied both to production and interpretation-oriented approach?

Are contemporary kinds of art, such as environmental art, bio-art, or street-art, more prone to the production-oriented ethical criticism than the art of the past?

Confirmed speakers:

Laura Candiotto (Centre for Ethics, Pardubice)

Matej Cíbik (Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)

Elisabeth Schellekens Dammann (Uppsala University) – Keynote

Daisy Dixon (Cambridge University)

Antony Fredriksson (Centre for Ethics, Pardubice)

Iris Vidmar Jovanović (University of Rijeka)

Petr Kotatko (Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)

María José Alcaraz León (University of Murcia)

Benjamin Matheson (University of Glasgow)

Ted Nannicelli (University of Queensland) – Keynote

Silvia Caprioglio Panizza (Centre for Ethics, Pardubice)

Panos Paris (Cardiff University)

Nils-Hennes Stear (University of Hamburg)

Enrico Terrone (University of Genoa)

The main co-ordinator of the conference:

Tomas Koblizek, Institute of Philosophy Czech Academy of Sciences, Tato e-mailová adresa je chráněna před spamboty. Pro její zobrazení musíte mít povolen Javascript.

Conference pdf