The daughter of Nobel Prize-winning writer Monroe revealed that she was sexually abused by her stepfather many times when she was a child. Monroe chose to protect her husband after learning about it. From Woody Allen to Kevin Spacey, in recent years, there have been many revelations about inappropriate remarks and behaviors by popular artists, and even some criminal acts. Coupled with the popularity of social media and the Internet, the public has become wary and critical of the hidden lives of artists they once loved. Does the moral life of an artist affect the aesthetic value of his work? How should we treat these immoral artists? And, can you still appreciate their works?
in “Drawing the Line? "How to Treat the Works of Unscrupulous Artists", the author uses philosophical tools to provide keen insights into this ethical issue that troubles us. The author believes that an artist's moral life not only affects the public's interpretation of the meaning of his works, but also affects the aesthetic value of his works. Works of art provide powerful emotional resources that allow us to explore moral complexities in the art world and thereby combat unethical behavior. Therefore, we should not shy away from the work of unethical artists, but should engage with it more thoughtfully and make judgments about when and where to draw the line between art and artists when artists behave immorally.
《Draw the line? "How to Treat the Works of Unscrupulous Artists", [American] Eric Hautolo Mathers
, translated by Guo Shuobo, published by Yilin Publishing House
>> Selected readings:
When artists do terrible things …
For most of my life, I considered Love and Death to be my favorite movie. This 1975 satire about Russian literature is peppered with humor that ranges from high-brow tribute comedy to crude farce to what can only be described as "dad jokes." It's also filled with explicitly philosophical discussions, so as a philosophically minded teenager who later became a philosophy professor, I undoubtedly had a fondness for it. Of course, I don't think this is a well-known movie, so you may not be familiar with it. "Love and Death" stars, writes and directs Woody Allen.
To me, Love and Death is what kids call a "problem darling" these days. Woody Allen was accused of molesting his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, who was 7 years old at the time, and eventually married Soon-Yi Previn, the daughter of his ex-partner Mia Farrow. Although the relationship didn't officially begin until Previn was an adult, it apparently took hold when she was younger, when Allen was still playing a parental role. Whatever you think of the details of the charges, Allen has a reputation for having extremely poor moral character. I loathe Allen, he makes me uneasy, but I love Love and Death (not to mention other classic Allen films like Hannah and Annie Hall). The juxtaposition of these beloved works of art with their unscrupulous creators leaves me feeling confused, nostalgic, angry, and betrayed. How to deal with these emotions, I'm not sure yet.
This book will try to sort out these thoughts and feelings in a philosophical way, the tool I know best. While the details of this story may be unique to me, I think we all relate, in various ways, to the realization that the artist who created the work we love did something terrible. was affected. What should we do, think, and feel about this? I can't promise a simple or direct answer to these questions. However, I can offer arguments and reflections that will hopefully allow you to draw your own conclusions about unscrupulous artists and the role they play in our lives. Reflecting on these issues has led me to some positions that I am convinced of, but other topics remain vexing. My other goal in writing this book is to illustrate why I think there are no easy answers, which will help you feel the pull of the forces that I feel.
I want to make it clear at the beginning that there is nothing I will do in this book.I will not investigate, report, or evaluate any legal case for or against the actions of a specific individual. Just as I'm not a firefighter or an astronaut, I'm far from an investigative reporter. Although I will use a range of real-life examples, my purpose is not to explain why a particular artist behaved unethically. As a philosopher who specializes in ethics, although this is also consistent with my research direction, it is different from what I want to discuss here. Instead, I will focus on issues that arise from morally wrongdoing by artists. So, in the case of Allen, he did something wrong, what can we deduce from that? In this way, I was able to avoid too many repetitions of graphic details of the actions of well-known artists, but as in the discussion of Allen, reference to these details is unavoidable. Every chapter in this book references sexual assault in some way, and I want readers to know this before they begin. The book
is not comprehensive either. There are many relevant examples and arguments that are not included, or are mentioned only in passing. My intention is to guide your thinking through some useful deliberations in an engaging way: it is not intended to be an exhaustive survey of logical space. No doubt you will think of examples that I have not discussed here. That's very good! You can use these examples to test some of the suggestions I make in the following pages.
Some readers of this book will long to hear the term "cancel culture," a term that hangs around discussions of unscrupulous artists like a fog, obscuring the details of those difficult issues. I'll try to clear up the confusion in Chapter 3, but whatever the term ultimately means, much of this book is not a direct discussion of whether unscrupulous artists should be "cancelled." Moving beyond the framework of cancel culture would give us space to explore many other interesting questions: Does an artist's moral life affect the aesthetic quality of his or her work? Is it morally permissible for us to enjoy their work, or be attracted by their work? How do we sort through those conflicting emotions when a favorite artist does or says terrible things? Addressing the nuances of these questions will allow us to better understand, for example, why a museum may be justified in canceling an upcoming exhibition of an artist accused of attempting to commit harm, but leaving him It would be unreasonable for his work to be removed from all galleries in the world.
I have been teaching moral philosophy courses for more than ten years. Students always come to class with some questions about moral terms, especially the relationship between "morals" and "ethics." In answer to this question, I once mentioned a scene from "Election," but apparently no one under the age of 35 has seen that movie (Reese Witherspoon fans, don't overthink it). So, I will use "unethical" and "immoral" interchangeably for the sake of stylistic diversity, just so you know, and the discussion here assumes that there is no difference in meaning between the two. The same is true for "aesthetics" and "art". There are various ways to differentiate between these terms, but here you can consider them as synonyms.
Bill Watson has a comic series, "Calvin and Hobbes". In the work, a disgruntled Calvin sullenly says, "Good-faith compromises make everyone angry." In this book, I have no intention of mediating the differences between the factions, but since I still struggle with these issues, So it does feel like a compromise in some ways. On the one hand, I'm fed up with privileged people who use their position to exploit the weak or promote hateful views, as established artists are wont to do. But I also love art and believe that fighting predators and bigots does not require us to sacrifice art in the process. G. K. Chesterton once wrote: “Art, like morality, involves drawing a line somewhere."I think we can make those two things consistent if we draw the line in the right place, a commitment to ethics and a love of art, but it's really challenging to build that picture. . You may not be completely satisfied with the final result, but even if the picture I present here doesn't quite satisfy you, I hope it will provide you with some useful guidance on how to picture your own view of things. Inspiration. Where do you draw the line? After all, we need to place these lines somewhere or risk losing art or morality altogether (Excerpted from Where to Draw the Line?: How to Treat the Work of Unscrupulous Artists) Introduction)
Author: [US] Eric Hautolo Mathers
Text: [US] Eric Hautolo Mathers Editor: Jiang Chuting Editor: Zhu Zifen
