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The British Journal of Aesthetics 2008 48(2):145-161; doi:10.1093/aesthj/ayn002
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© British Society of Aesthetics 2008

Immoralism and the Anti-Theoretical View

Robert Stecker

Robert Stecker, Department of Philosophy, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859, USA

Email: steck1r{at}cmich.edu


  Abstract

Can a moral defect be an artistic virtue? Can it make a positive contribution to artistic value? Further, if this can happen on occasion, does this imply that moral value has no systematic connection to artistic value since every conceivable relation between them is possible? The idea that moral defects can sometimes be artistic virtues has received a fair number of defenders recently and so has the anti-theoretical view that there is no systematic relation between artistic and moral value. But I think immoralism—as the first of these views is called—is mistaken and I will try to show that no good reason has been offered to believe it. If immoralism is wrong, the anti-theoretical view at best devolves into moderate moralism—the idea that moral defects sometimes, but not always, are responsible for artistic defects.


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