This major collection of essays stands at the border of aesthetics and ethics and deals with charged issues of practical import: art and morality, the ethics of taste, and censorship. As such its potential interest is by no means confined to professional philosophers; it should also appeal to art historians and critics, literary theorists, and students of film. Prominent philosophers in both aesthetics and ethics tackle a wide array of issues. Some of the questions explored in the volume include: Can art be morally enlightening and, if so, how? If a work of art is morally better does that make it better as art? Is morally deficient art to be shunned, or even censored? Do subjects of artworks have rights as to how they are represented? Do artists have duties as artists and duties as human beings, and if so, to whom? How much tension is there between the demands of art and the demands of life?

‘The editor’s professed hope is that it may encourage and inspire others to investigate further the relationships between aesthetics and ethics. I am sure it is a hope which this stimulating volume will fulfil.’

Source: The Philosophical Quarterly

‘In a short review it is impossible to do justice to the subtlety and complexity in these fine essays. Overall it is an excellent collection, both a good introduction to ethicists interested in the relation between ethics and aesthetics, and a rich mind for aestheticians, Kudos to the editor, Jerrold Levinson.’

Source: Music & Letters