Philosophy Talk: Beauty and the Promise of Imagination

Join Professor Samantha Matherne of Harvard University for the Philosophy lecture "Beauty and the Promise of Imagination."

In contemporary philosophical aesthetics, more attention is being paid to the importance of pluralism in aesthetic life. According to philosophers like Dominic McIver Lopes, the promise of beauty is the promise of participating in niche aesthetic practices that reflect the niche values of individuals. Though this insight captures one aspect of aesthetic life, in this paper I argue that there is a kind of beauty, which I call “common beauty,” that promises to bring human beings together across their niches. More specifically, I claim that objects that have “common beauty” invite human beings to exercise a capacity that we share in common, viz., the imagination. In defending this view, I make the case that appreciating this connection between beauty and imagination respects the fact of pluralism, while also giving us reason to hope for broader human connection.