Research

At its heart, my research articulates and vindicates the idea that we have agency in the aesthetic realm. In several ways, humans can exercise control over the beautiful. In the context of value theory, this means that aesthetic value—and aesthetic normativity—is unique as a kind of value. Beauty is plastic in a way that morality and practical reason aren’t. I argue for a voluntarist account of aesthetic value: The heart of beauty is not in desire or pleasure, and not in perception and cognition, but in the will. This has led to projects in several other areas of philosophy: metaphysics and perception of music, and social-political philosophy.

I also have research and teaching interests in the philosophy of music, the aesthetics of race and gender, and the philosophy of technology.