Aesthetic Insight and Mental Agency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9466874 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher Prodoehl (0000-0002-7200-0056, Barnard College, Columbia University , USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 537-552 |
| Publication date | 2023-07-19 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal of Aesthetics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-0904 • E-ISSN: 1468-2842 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/aesthj/ayac057 |
| OpenAlex | W4384826051 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 25 |
Do artists have control over their ideas for new artworks? This is often treated as a question about spontaneity, or the experience of control: does the event of having an idea for a new artwork occur unexpectedly and without foresight? I suggest another way of interpreting the question—one that has mostly been neglected by philosophers, and that is not settled by claims about spontaneity. According to that interpretation, the question is about agency: are the events of having ideas for new artworks exercises of mental agency? I argue that the answer is no. I apply the results of this argument to questions about what is and is not intentional in the creative process. I conclude by examining another type of control artists might exercise over their creative mental events, which I call ‘facilitation’
Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Cognition · Control (management · Epistemology · Event (particle physics · Facilitation · Futures studies · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Mental image · Sociology · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Computer Science · Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Psychology
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |