Creating a Disturbance

This article argues that good art is intrinsically ethical, and, precisely because of this intrinsic ethicality, the arts can contribute to other modes of ethical conduct, including politics. In making this argument, I aim to mediate and move beyond the polarity between Adornian negativity and Habermasian affirmation. The argument requires a new account of art's autonomy as relational and as consisting of three closely interlinked forms: interpersonal, internal, and societal autonomy. Interpersonal autonomy has to do with normative expectations concerning participation in the arts. The internal autonomy of art pertains to characteristics that both distinguish art from other realms of cultural endeavor and make it societally important. The societal autonomy of art has to do with how the arts relate to political and economic systems. The article lays out a relational conception of all three forms of autonomy and, in that context, describes the greatest ethical challenges facing contemporary art

Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Autonomy · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Interpersonal communication · Normative · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · The arts · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art · Law · Philosophy · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education · Psychology · Social Psychology