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Art and Transformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2022

ANTONY AUMANN Open the ORCID record for ANTONY AUMANN [Opens in a new window]
ANTONY AUMANN*
Affiliation:
NORTHERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY aaumann@nmu.edu
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Abstract

Encounters with art can change us in ways both big and small. This paper focuses on one of the more dramatic cases. I argue that works of art can inspire what L. A. Paul calls transformations, classic examples of which include getting married, having a child, and undergoing a religious conversion. Two features distinguish transformations from other changes we undergo. First, they involve the discovery of something new. Second, they result in a change in our core preferences. These two features make transformations hard to motivate. I argue, however, that art can help on both fronts. First, works of art can guide our attempt to imagine unfamiliar ways of living. Second, they can attract us to values we currently reject. I conclude by observing that what makes art powerful also makes it dangerous. Transformations are not always for the good, and art's ability to inspire them can be put to immoral ends.

Keywords

aestheticsdecision theoryhabituationimaginationtransformative experiences
Type
Article
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , Winter 2022 , pp. 567 - 585
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Philosophical Association

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Footnotes

For their contributions and support, I would like to thank Elisabeth Camp, Julianne Chung, Amy Kind, and Sarah Leslie Reynolds. In addition, I am grateful for the feedback from the audiences at the meeting of the Rocky Mountain Division of the American Society for Aesthetics in August 2019, the Aesthetics for Distant Birds workshop in June 2020, and the Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in July 2021. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the students of my philosophy of art class in winter 2019 for their thoughtful criticisms. Finally, many thanks to the editors and referees of this journal whose helpful comments greatly improved the paper.

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