Research

Overview

I work mainly in aesthetics, with connections to value theory, philosophy of language, social philosophy, philosophy of action, philosophy of mind, and the history of philosophy. I have published on a wide range of topics, including the transformative power of beauty, street art, the nature of personal ideals, personal style, artistic style, and Friedrich Schiller’s aesthetics.

My current work develops a new, systematic theory of aesthetic value—aesthetic communitarianism—and shows how it handles a range of problems in aesthetics. I motivate the theory here, develop it here, and apply it to aesthetic discourse here. The papers I am writing now apply the view to aesthetic acquaintance, aesthetic testimony, and aesthetic autonomy. See my PhilPapers.org page for abstracts and preprints. My CV is here.

Books

  • This Beauty: A Philosophy of Being Alive, Basic Books, (2022) [English, Audio, Japanese and Greek forthcoming] [Reviewed in the British Journal of Aesthetics here]

  • Understanding Aesthetic Life: Essays (a collection of some of my published essays, under contract with Oxford University Press)

  • This Is Aesthetics, with C. Thi Nguyen (under contract with Wiley-Blackwell)

  • Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters, with Dominic McIver Lopes and Bence Nanay, Oxford University Press (2022) [English, Japanese]

  • On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck, Penguin Books, 2017 [English, Audio, Turkish]

Peer-Reviewed Articles

  1. “Can’t Kill the Vibe: Against Hope in Aesthetic Discourse,” forthcoming, Mind

  2. “Aesthetic Acquaintance in Practice,” forthcoming, Philosophical Quarterly

  3. “Connecting Beauty and Love,” in Art and Philosophy: New Essays at the Intersection, ed. Alex King, Oxford University Press, 2025

  4. “Kant and Cogito,” in Colin Marshall & Stefanie Grüne (eds.), Kant's Lasting Legacy: Essays in Honor of Béatrice Longuenesse, Routledge, 2025

  5. “Community and Conflict in Aesthetic Life: A Reply to Song,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 83 (2): 183-186, 2025 [here]

  6. “Aesthetic Ranking: Tomatoes, Parker Points, and Pitchforks,” forthcoming, Philosophical Topics 52 (1): 139-160, 2024

  7. “Aesthetic Value and the Practice of Aesthetic Valuing,” The Philosophical Review, 133: 2, pp. 113-149, April 2024 [here]

    • Selected for the  Philosopher’s Annual 10 Best Philosophy Articles of 2024

  8. “Autonomy and Aesthetic Valuing,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 109: 1, pp. 391-409, July 2024 [here]

  9. “Convergence, Community, and Force in Aesthetic Discourse,” Ergo 8: 47. doi: https://doi.org/10.3998/ergo.2248, 2022 [here]

  10. “Toward a Communitarian Theory of Aesthetic Value,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 80: 1, pp. 16–30, 2022 [here]

  11. “Artistic Style as the Expression of Ideals,” with Robert Hopkins, Philosophers’ Imprint, 21 (NO. 8): 1-18, May 2021 [here]

  12. “Schiller on Freedom and Aesthetic Value Part II,” with Samantha Matherne, British Journal of Aesthetics, Volume 61, Issue 1, pp. 17-40, January 2021 [here]

  13. “Schiller on Freedom and Aesthetic Value Part I,” with Samantha Matherne, British Journal of Aesthetics, Volume 60, Issue 4, pp. 375–402, October 2020 [here]

    **Commentary by Paloma Atencia-Linares in celebration of the BJA’s 60th anniversary

    **Listed among the “Best of 2020” in Philosophy from Oxford University Press

  14. “Transformative Expression,” Becoming Someone New: Essays on Transformative Experience, Choice, and Change, Ed. Enoch Lambert and John Schwenkler, Oxford University Press, 2020 [here] 

  15. “Personal Ideals as Metaphors,” Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 3(3): 265-283, 2017 [here]

    **Selected for an author-meets-critics session at the 2019 Pacific APA meeting

  16. “On the Interest in Beauty and Disinterest,” Philosophers’ Imprint, Volume 16, NO. 9, pp. 1-14. 2016 [here]

  17. “Using the Street for Art: A Reply to Baldini,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 74, no. 2, 2016 [here]

  18. “Personal Style and Artistic Style,” The Philosophical Quarterly, 65 (261):711-731, 2015 [here]

  19. “On the Aesthetic Ideal,” British Journal of Aesthetics, 55 (4):433-447, 2015 [here]

     **Voted one of the five best aesthetics articles of 2015 by Aesthetics for Birds

  20. “Levinson on the Aesthetic Ideal,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 71, no. 3, 2013 [here]

  21. “Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 68, no. 3, 2010 [here]

Book Reviews, Internet, Podcast, Encyclopedia Articles, Etc.