ABSTRACT
The primary aim of this chapter is to outline the consensuses that have emerged in recent philosophical works tackling normative questions about responding to immoral artists’ art. While disagreement amongst philosophers is unavoidable, there is actually much agreement on the ethics of media consumption. How should we evaluate immoral artists’ art? Philosophers generally agree that we should not always separate the artist from the art. How should we engage with immoral artists’ art? Philosophers generally agree that we should not always reflexively turn away from them. In turn, these responses reveal that moral value is not wholly autonomous from aesthetic value, and neither dominates the other. The secondary aim of this chapter is to explore the ramifications of these revelations. I argue that, in addition to the ethics of media consumption, we need an aesthetics of media consumption that is fundamentally social rather than solitary.
