Scottish Aesthetics Forum: Aaron Meskin (31 January, Univ. of Edinburgh)
The Scottish Aesthetics Forum is delighted to announce its next lecture:
Dr Aaron Meskin (Leeds)
“Aesthetic Testimony: An Experimental Investigation”
(written with Dr Shen-yi Liao (Puget Sound) & Dr James Andow (Reading))
Tuesday, 31 January, 2017, 4:15 – 6:00pm
Room G04, 50 George Square,
University of Edinburgh
The lecture is free and open to all!
Abstract: Ordinary testimony transmits knowledge. But aestheticians have been sceptical of whether aesthetic testimony transmits aesthetic knowledge. Although the debate in the philosophical literature focuses largely on normative and conceptual questions, empirical claims about folk resistance to aesthetic testimony play a significant role in that debate. Our studies explore folk attitudes towards aesthetic testimony. We argue that experimental results do not support pessimism about the epistemic value of aesthetic testimony.
About the speaker: Aaron Meskin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leeds. His current research interests include experimental aesthetics, the philosophy of food, and the aesthetic issues raised by comics, graphic novels and improvisational dance. In addition to the foregoing topics, Aaron Meskin’s publications span aesthetic testimony, bad art, the definition of art, the imagination, and video games. He is former Treasurer and Officer of the British Society of Aesthetics and a former Trustee of the American Society for Aesthetics. From 2009-2013 he was co-investigator on the AHRC project “Method in philosophical aesthetics: the challenge from the sciences”. More information on Aaron Meskin, including a complete list of his publications, can be found on his website: https://aaron-meskin.org.
Additional information: The lecture will be followed by a dinner with our speaker. If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact the organisers by Wednesday, 25 January.
*** There are limited funds to cover dinner expenses for two students, offered on a first-come-first-served basis. ***
• To contact the organisers: scottishaestheticsforum@gmail.
• For more information: http://www.saf.ppls.ed.ac.uk
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SAF is generously supported by the
British Society of Aesthetics & the Scots Philosophical Association.