CEPPA Talk (in-person & online) – Vid Simoniti (University of Liverpool)

Title: Merely Imagined Moralities

Abstract: Artworks and other cultural products (films, novels, operas, pop songs, etc.) often express heroic, pessimistic, melancholy, or dark ways of looking at the world (also referred to as ‘perspectives’). Sometimes, these worldviews appear politically inflected; we may, for instance, describe a work as “feminist” or “patriotic” according to the worldview it expresses. Drawing on Elisabeth Camp’s and Nelson Goodman’s work, I propose that when artworks express worldviews, they (i) represent sets of mental dispositions for interpreting and reacting to the real world, and (ii) they achieve this by leading the audience to temporarily inhabit those dispositions. This view has at least two important implications: first, it makes little sense to morally evaluate artworks for expressing worldviews, because representing mental dispositions does not amount to endorsing them. Secondly, the expression of worldviews through artworks and other cultural products nevertheless plays a specific, underappreciated role in political discourse.

Location: Edgecliffe G03