When Artists Fall: Honoring and Admiring the Immoral
Archer,Alfred Matheson,Benjamin
Archer,Alfred
Matheson,Benjamin
Abstract
Is it appropriate to honor artists who have created great works but who have also acted immorally? In this article, after arguing that honoring involves identifying a person as someone we ought to admire, we present three moral reasons against honoring immoral artists. First, we argue that honoring can serve to condone their behavior, through the mediums of emotional prioritization and exemplar identification. Second, we argue that honoring immoral artists can generate undue epistemic credibility for the artists, which can lead to an indirect form of testimonial injustice for the artists’ victims. Third, we argue, building on the first two reasons, that honoring immoral artists can also serve to silence their victims. We end by considering how we might respond to these reasons.
Description
Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
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Keywords
honor, condonation, silencing, epistemic injustice, admiration
Citation
Archer, A & Matheson, B 2019, 'When Artists Fall: Honoring and Admiring the Immoral', Journal of the American Philosophical Association, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 246-265. https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2019.9