Time: Mon 1 Jun 2026, at 15:00

Place: Room B112, Building 2, Lee Shau Kee Humanities Hall

Speaker: Panos Paris, Cardiff University

Language: English

This event is an Analytic Philosophy Forum talk.

Abstract:

This paper explores a sorely neglected fact: throughout the history ofaesthetics, the notion of (good) taste has been ineliminably underpinnedby ethical assumptions. Specifically, ethical perspectives (including moralperspectives) have been taken as axiomatic. The paper discusses threeways in which this appears to be the case, discusses the implications ofthese assumptions, and argues that the best explanation of this is thattaste is, primarily, an ethical notion that is prior to, and formative of, all ofour other aesthetic experiences, evaluations, etc. This account suggestsan objectivist basis for taste, to the extent that it's plausible to think thatat least some ethical outlooks are clearly better than others, and aqualified universalism, to the extent that it's plausible that some featuresof acceptable ethical outlooks are universal--such as are captured, forinstance, in notions like 'human nature', 'common humanity', 'humancapabilities', etc. Not only does this account emerge as the bestexplanation for the facts explored at the outset; it also neatly explainswhy pluralism and cosmopolitanism are becoming increasingly popular inaesthetics, and offers a cautionary tale against them.