Can naturalized aesthetics contribute to the evaluation of a work? In this article, I consider three ways in which naturalized aesthetics may inform critical evaluation. First, I analyze the role of naturalized aesthetic analysis in the formation of the creative choices made by filmmakers. Second, I assess the relationship between the analysis of empathy provided by Murray Smith’s Film, Art, and the Third Culture and the expression of moral evaluations. And third, I outline what I take to be naturalized aesthetics’ promising potential contribution to the study of genre and contra-standard features. In the concluding section, I instead introduce what I take to be two rather serious difficulties to a cooperation between criticism and naturalized aesthetics.
Laura T. Di Summa-Knoop is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Her research focuses mainly on aesthetics, on the philosophy of motion pictures, and on aesthetic practices that affect our daily life and identity. Email: disummaknoopl@wpunj.edu