Ethics and the Arts, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2014

This book proposes that the highest expression of ethics is an aesthetic. It suggests that the quintessential performance of any field of practice is an art that captures an ethic beyond any literal statement of values. This is to advocate for a shift in emphasis, away from current juridical approaches to ethics (ethical codes or regulation), toward ethics as an aesthetic practice?away from ethics as a minimal requirement, toward ethics as an aspiration. The book explores the relationship between art and ethics: a subject that has fascinated philosophers from ancient Greece to the present. It explores this relationship in all the arts: literature, the visual arts, film, the performing arts, and music. It also examines current issues raised by ?hybrid? artists who are working at the ambiguous intersections between art, bio art and bioethics and challenging ethical limits in working with living materials. In considering these issues the book investigates the potential for art and ethics to be mutually challenged and changed in this meeting.

The book is aimed at artists and students of the arts, who may be interested in approaching ethics and the arts in a new way. It is also aimed at students and teachers of ethics and philosophy, as well as those working in bioethics and the health professions. It will have appeal to the ?general educated reader? as being current, of considerable interest, and offering a perspective on ethics that goes beyond a professional context to include questions about how one approaches ethics in one?s own life and practices.

Contents.- Dedication.- Contents.- Contributors.- Preface.- Introduction.- Ethics and the Arts; Paul Macneill.- Part 1The Arts and Ethics.- Literature.- 1 Literature and ethics: learning to read with Emma Bovary.- Iain Bamforth.- Introduction.; 1.1. The historical background; 1.2. The work; 1.3. Conclusion: the ethics of reading .- Music;  2 Music and morality; Philip Alperson; 2.1. Music, morality, and philosophy; 2.2. The deep diversity of musical practices; 2.3. Musical resources and morality2.4. Music, ethos, and education         .- Visual arts; 3 Modern painting and morality; Paul Macneill; Introduction ; 3.1. Morality in early modern painting; 3.1.1. The moral universe: gathering of the ashes; 3.1.2. Two Bathshebas; 3.2. Modern painting to 1980; 3.2.1. The beginnings of modern painting 3.2.2.Mark Rothko; 3.2.3. Andy Warhol; 3.3. Modern painting from a moral perspective ; Discussion.- 4 The photograph not as proof but as limit; Sarah Sentilles; 4.1. Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida; 4.2. Josh Azzarella and Trevor Paglen; 4.3. Unknowability, Mystery, and Ethical Viewing.- Film and documentary; 5 Of redemption: the good of film experience; Brian Bergen-Aurand; 5.1. Encountering cinema; 5.2. Intersecting ethics; 5.3. Redeeming cinema and ethics; 5.4. Risking redemption.- 6 Movies and medical ethics; Henri Colt; Introduction; 6.1. Film as a starting point for studying medical ethics; 6.2. Engaging viewers and delivering messages cinematographically; 6.3. Extracted sequences illustrate memorable moments of a film’s narrative; 6.4. The value of informed awareness; 6.5. Aesthetics; a valuable addition to the message        ; Conclusion.- 7 The House of the Dead—ethics and aesthetics of the documentary; Debora Diniz; 7.1. The poem; 7.2. Three characters—Jaime, Antonio and Almerindo; 7.2.1 Almerindo Act 1: ‘The bells’; 7.2.2 Jaime Act 2: ‘The deaths’; 7.2.3 Antonio Act 3: ‘The forgotten’; 7.3 Activist documentary making.- Dance ; 8 Embracing the unknown, ethics and dance; PhilipaRothfield; Introduction; 8.1. Spinoza’s ethics; 8.2. Training and technique; Conclusion.-  9 Contemporary Indigenous dance, loss and cultural intuition; Rachael Swain; Introduction.; 9.1. Marrugeku; 9.2. Burning Daylight Production outline; 9.3. Contemporary dance in a context of loss and forced removal; 9.3.1 Case Study: Researching Burning Daylight ; 9.4. Negotiating the contemporary in the native title era; 9.4.1 Case study: Rubibi; 9.4.2 Case Study: Memory of Tradition; 9.5. The Art of Listening.- Performing arts and theatre .- 10 Toward an intersubjective ethics of acting and actor training; Phillip Zarrilli; 10.1. Considering the intersubjective space ‘between’ in one performance ; 10.1.1. Phenomenological perspectives on intersubjectivity; 10.2. Theatre and Ethics: a brief overview; 10.3. The postmodern condition and ethics; 10.3.1 Levinas’ ethics of ethics; Concluding discussion: two modes of intersubjectivity in Told by the Wind—the lived body, and a call we can/not ignore.- 11 Politics and ethics in applied theatre: face-to-face and disturbing the fabric of the sensible; James Thompson; 11.1. Facing the other; 11.2. Political affects; 11.3. Sensitising through participatory theatre; 11.4. The fabric of the sensible; 11.5. Conclusion.- 12 Presence in performance: an enigmatic quality; Paul Macneill; Introduction; 12.1. Reform of theatre in the twentieth century; 12.1.1 Artaud; 12.1.2 Stanislavsky     ; 12.2. Developments during the twentieth century; 12.3. Critique of the metaphysics of ‘presence’; 12.3.1 Derrida; 12.3.1.1 Derrida’s philosophical project and methodology; 12.3.2 ‘Self’ as grounding ‘presence’; 12.4. Political critiques of ‘presence’; 12.5. Changes in understanding ‘presence’: its many meanings; Discussion.- 13 Ethics and performance: enacting presence; Paul Macneill; Introduction;13.1. Enactment and presence; 13.2. Enacting and ‘presencing’ in performance; 13.3. An enactive approach: relating presence and ethics; 13.3.1 Not resolved—openness to surprise; 13.3.2 The House with the Ocean View ; 13.4. An Affective Athleticism; Conclusion.- Part 2: What is the relation between ethics and the arts?.- 14 Ethics and the arts: a critical review of the new moralisms; Paul Macneill; Introduction; 14.1. The new ‘moralisms’; 14.2. Challenges to ‘moralism’: Immoral works of art ; 14.3. ‘Ethicism’ and its critics; Discussion; 15 Ethics and aesthetics—joined at the hip? ; Miles Little; 15.1. The nexus between aesthetics and ethics; 15.2. Public discourse; 15.3. Implications.- Part 3: Bioart and bioethics.- 16 Taking responsibility for life: bioethics and bioart; Joanna Zylinska; 16.1. Life in bioart; 16.2. Normativity and the democratic paradox; 16.3. Performing life; 16.4. Between transformation and invention; 16.5. Affective encounters and the ethical ‘cut’.- 17 The unnatural relations between artistic research and ethics committees: an artist’s perspective; IonatZurr and OronCatts; 17.1. Introduction; 17.2. Case studies ; 17.2.1 Is art research?; 17.2.2 Animal ethics committee; 17.2.3 Using one’s own skin; 17.2.4 Tissue from living donors for artistic expression ; 17.2.5 Audience response to tissue; 17.3. Conclusion.- Part 4: Art and ethics in relation to science and medicine.- 18 Ethics and the arts in the medical humanities; Claire Hooker; 18.1. The medical humanities: a growing field; 18.2. The benefits ascribed to the arts in the medical humanities; 18.3. Nussbaum/Charon: A model for art and ethics in medicine and healthcare; 18.4. Criticisms of Nussbaum/Charon   ; 18.5. Postmodern approaches and their limitations; Conclusion.- 19 The songs of spring: quest myths, metaphors, and medical progress; George J. Annas; 19.1. Genomic ‘personalised’ medicine; 19.2. The little prince’s anti-quest; 19.3. Stories about people who need healthcare; 19.4. Competing stories in American healthcare; 20 Art, place, climate: situated ethics; Ruth Little; Place; Culture and climate; Embodied knowledge; Art, science, interdisciplinary futures; Conclusion.- 21 Arts rich contribution to ethics; Paul Macneill; 21.1 Intercultural issues in making art; 21.2 Substantive moral issues portrayed in art; 21.3 ‘Relating’ ethically examined in theatre, film, dance, and toward ‘place’; 21.4 Art as celebration—supportive of community and ethical relationship; 21.5 Moral commentary in works of art—and art as political protest; 21.6 Ethics and images; 21.7 Ethical issues in making art; 21.8 Ethics of art in relating to science and medicine; 21.9 Ethics of teaching and the teaching of ethics; 21.10 Normative standards in making, appreciating, and drawing lessons from art ;21.11 Theoretical and philosophical positions relating ethics to the arts; 21.12 Arts offers a rich contribution to ethics.- Index.        

This book explores the relationship between art and ethics

22 chapters cover the relationship between ethics and all the arts

Ethics is discussed as an aesthetic

The book challenges current approaches to ethics

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras