David Fenner
Biographic Data
| ID | 459932 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Fenner |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Fenner |
| SIGNATURE | FENNER D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of North Florida |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Weed Problem
The anthology Plant Ethics includes arguments whose conclusion is plants deserve moral consideration. Accepting these arguments, this paper explores how we should think about weeds and the actions and attitudes of gardeners as they pursue the standard practice of weeding. The paper explores four options for dealing with the problem of weeds: 1) gardeners are morally wrong in their pursuit of the standard practice of weeding, 2) weeds are harmful …
What Counts as an Aesthetic Property
This article addresses the question “what is an aesthetic property?” and does so in a way that does not try to settle the question but rather lays out arguments so that students may draw their own lines along the spectrum, dividing what they take to be aesthetic properties from those things they decide do not qualify. This question is important because students must understand the database, relative to whatever aesthetic object they have under co…
The Ethics of Aesthetic Discourse
A paradox lies at the intersection of aesthetic discourse and aesthetic value. At least one goal of aesthetic discourse is to increase aesthetic value. When aesthetic value is understood to be located in individual aesthetic experiences, occasionally aesthetic discourse leads to a reduction of that value. When this happens, one might ask whether aesthetic discourse is only morally right when it enhances the value of individual aesthetic experienc…
Aesthetic Normativity, Aesthetic Education, and Hypothetical Judgments
In this article, I will try to show that (1) one of the more compelling reasons for advocating for aesthetic normativity comes from an axiom that suppositionally underlies aesthetic educational endeavors and (2) by framing aesthetic judgments contextually and hypothetically we may be able to deal effectively with one of the more compelling reasons for antinormativity, namely the fact of irreconcilable differences between judgments of two equally …
Positive Garden Aesthetics
The cognitivist environmental-aesthetic theory of Positive Aesthetics—that holds that nature untouched by humans, known through the lens of science, is always aesthetically good—is not relevant to gardens. Nonetheless, I argue that every garden (with one possible exception) is aesthetically positive, that true summative aesthetic judgements about (bona fide) gardens are always on balance positive, and that every garden possesses more aestheticall…
The dualist character of a garden's aesthetic properties
The attribution of perceptually based aesthetic properties to a garden should be indexed to whether that attribution is (1) to the ever-changing dynamic garden or (2) to some phenomenal capture of the garden in one's experience, frozen like a photograph. Perceptually based aesthetic properties are used to identify objects, to compare them to others, to evaluate them, and to describe them as we seek to interpret or find meaning in them. This set o…
The Art and Philosophy of the Garden
The Art and Philosophy of the Garden is a comprehensive philosophical treatment of the aesthetics of gardens. The book focuses on five central questions: (1) What is a garden? The ten-point definition offered is derived from a comprehensive inventory of garden types. (2) Are some gardens works of art? Inspired by the recent work of garden philosophers-and after examining the arguments, as well as comparing the garden to other artforms-the book ar…
Aesthetic Preparation
This article examines the question of to what degree does having an aesthetic experience rely on being prepared to have such an experience. The answer, affirming that preparation is necessary, is offered in three parts: a volitional model, an expectation model, and a receptivity model
Art Education and the Investment of Attention
This paper is written for students of art and for teachers who are working to introduce students to art. It offers a practical answer to a practical question: how much time and attention should be directed toward a work of art that does not seem to be rewarding such an investment before deciding to give up and/or move on to an investment of time and attention in a different work of art? Reductionist tests such as “After fifteen minutes in a cinem…
Mapping Approaches to Interpretation
There are a variety of different approaches to understanding how to interpret a work of art. And there are a plurality of ways of understanding how those various approaches relate to, and differ from, one another. In this essay, I offer (1) an exploration of some of the similarities that popular contemporary approaches share and, (2) based on differences among interpretative approaches, three different ways of mapping those approaches
Disposing of Art and Educating Theory Choice
This paper considers the way that disposal of art—that is, removing it from one’s ownership or guardianship—might rightly be pursued. It is also about what appropriate disposal of art may mean for theories of the value of art. Students of art and aesthetics benefit from such tests as they determine which of the various theories of artistic value have lasting merit. Disposing of art is a particularly good test for educating theory choice as it is …
Evidencing an Art Evaluation
Advancing a claim about the quality of a work of art is critical thinking applied in a particular arena and applies the same rules that advancing a claim about anything follows. Described this way, advancing an art evaluative claim is no different from advancing any claim. On the other hand, advancing claims in differing arenas frequently follow different methodologies. Art criticism, thought of in this way—as a species of critical thinking focus…
Developing Aesthetic Taste
This paper explores how facts that lie beyond the formal properties of works of art are necessary for the development of aesthetic taste. The paper argues that taste may be educated, that an educated taste is better than a noneducated one, and that this education proceeds largely along the lines of learning contextual facts relevant to the appreciation of individual objects (and events), as well as ones relevant to genres and artforms. The paper …
Environmental Aesthetics and the Dynamic Object
In this paper, I lay out a case for why those objects of aesthetic attention which are principally characterized as natural objects should be understood not statically, as existing in merely a three-dimensional fixed state, but as dynamic, as existing in a space-time context, complete with change, movement, and flux. After this, I explain why this is important, how the dynamic nature of natural objects raises a concern for aesthetically evaluatin…
Artistic Value
Negative eugenics and ethical decisions
The Art and Philosophy of the Garden
The Art and Philosophy of the Garden is a comprehensive philosophical treatment of the aesthetics of gardens. The book focuses on five central questions: (1) What is a garden? The ten-point definition offered is derived from a comprehensive inventory of garden types. (2) Are some gardens works of art? Inspired by the recent work of garden philosophers-and after examining the arguments, as well as comparing the garden to other artforms-the book ar…
The dualist character of a garden's aesthetic properties
The attribution of perceptually based aesthetic properties to a garden should be indexed to whether that attribution is (1) to the ever-changing dynamic garden or (2) to some phenomenal capture of the garden in one's experience, frozen like a photograph. Perceptually based aesthetic properties are used to identify objects, to compare them to others, to evaluate them, and to describe them as we seek to interpret or find meaning in them. This set o…
Negative eugenics and ethical decisions
Artistic Value
Environmental Aesthetics and the Dynamic Object
In this paper, I lay out a case for why those objects of aesthetic attention which are principally characterized as natural objects should be understood not statically, as existing in merely a three-dimensional fixed state, but as dynamic, as existing in a space-time context, complete with change, movement, and flux. After this, I explain why this is important, how the dynamic nature of natural objects raises a concern for aesthetically evaluatin…
Developing Aesthetic Taste
This paper explores how facts that lie beyond the formal properties of works of art are necessary for the development of aesthetic taste. The paper argues that taste may be educated, that an educated taste is better than a noneducated one, and that this education proceeds largely along the lines of learning contextual facts relevant to the appreciation of individual objects (and events), as well as ones relevant to genres and artforms. The paper …
Disposing of Art and Educating Theory Choice
This paper considers the way that disposal of art—that is, removing it from one’s ownership or guardianship—might rightly be pursued. It is also about what appropriate disposal of art may mean for theories of the value of art. Students of art and aesthetics benefit from such tests as they determine which of the various theories of artistic value have lasting merit. Disposing of art is a particularly good test for educating theory choice as it is …
Evidencing an Art Evaluation
Advancing a claim about the quality of a work of art is critical thinking applied in a particular arena and applies the same rules that advancing a claim about anything follows. Described this way, advancing an art evaluative claim is no different from advancing any claim. On the other hand, advancing claims in differing arenas frequently follow different methodologies. Art criticism, thought of in this way—as a species of critical thinking focus…
Art Education and the Investment of Attention
This paper is written for students of art and for teachers who are working to introduce students to art. It offers a practical answer to a practical question: how much time and attention should be directed toward a work of art that does not seem to be rewarding such an investment before deciding to give up and/or move on to an investment of time and attention in a different work of art? Reductionist tests such as “After fifteen minutes in a cinem…
Mapping Approaches to Interpretation
There are a variety of different approaches to understanding how to interpret a work of art. And there are a plurality of ways of understanding how those various approaches relate to, and differ from, one another. In this essay, I offer (1) an exploration of some of the similarities that popular contemporary approaches share and, (2) based on differences among interpretative approaches, three different ways of mapping those approaches
Aesthetic Preparation
This article examines the question of to what degree does having an aesthetic experience rely on being prepared to have such an experience. The answer, affirming that preparation is necessary, is offered in three parts: a volitional model, an expectation model, and a receptivity model
Aesthetic Normativity, Aesthetic Education, and Hypothetical Judgments
In this article, I will try to show that (1) one of the more compelling reasons for advocating for aesthetic normativity comes from an axiom that suppositionally underlies aesthetic educational endeavors and (2) by framing aesthetic judgments contextually and hypothetically we may be able to deal effectively with one of the more compelling reasons for antinormativity, namely the fact of irreconcilable differences between judgments of two equally …
Positive Garden Aesthetics
The cognitivist environmental-aesthetic theory of Positive Aesthetics—that holds that nature untouched by humans, known through the lens of science, is always aesthetically good—is not relevant to gardens. Nonetheless, I argue that every garden (with one possible exception) is aesthetically positive, that true summative aesthetic judgements about (bona fide) gardens are always on balance positive, and that every garden possesses more aestheticall…
The dualist character of a garden's aesthetic properties
The attribution of perceptually based aesthetic properties to a garden should be indexed to whether that attribution is (1) to the ever-changing dynamic garden or (2) to some phenomenal capture of the garden in one's experience, frozen like a photograph. Perceptually based aesthetic properties are used to identify objects, to compare them to others, to evaluate them, and to describe them as we seek to interpret or find meaning in them. This set o…
The Art and Philosophy of the Garden
The Art and Philosophy of the Garden is a comprehensive philosophical treatment of the aesthetics of gardens. The book focuses on five central questions: (1) What is a garden? The ten-point definition offered is derived from a comprehensive inventory of garden types. (2) Are some gardens works of art? Inspired by the recent work of garden philosophers-and after examining the arguments, as well as comparing the garden to other artforms-the book ar…
The Ethics of Aesthetic Discourse
A paradox lies at the intersection of aesthetic discourse and aesthetic value. At least one goal of aesthetic discourse is to increase aesthetic value. When aesthetic value is understood to be located in individual aesthetic experiences, occasionally aesthetic discourse leads to a reduction of that value. When this happens, one might ask whether aesthetic discourse is only morally right when it enhances the value of individual aesthetic experienc…
The Weed Problem
The anthology Plant Ethics includes arguments whose conclusion is plants deserve moral consideration. Accepting these arguments, this paper explores how we should think about weeds and the actions and attitudes of gardeners as they pursue the standard practice of weeding. The paper explores four options for dealing with the problem of weeds: 1) gardeners are morally wrong in their pursuit of the standard practice of weeding, 2) weeds are harmful …
What Counts as an Aesthetic Property
This article addresses the question “what is an aesthetic property?” and does so in a way that does not try to settle the question but rather lays out arguments so that students may draw their own lines along the spectrum, dividing what they take to be aesthetic properties from those things they decide do not qualify. This question is important because students must understand the database, relative to whatever aesthetic object they have under co…
Art (11 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Aesthetics (9 works) · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis (7 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art (5 works)