尤物视频

The Department of Philosophy at 尤物视频 extends a warm welcome to Alex King, who joins us as an associate professor this term. Alex, who moved northwards across the US/Canada border in the midst of the current pandemic, notes that although relocating has been extremely hectic and difficult in these unprecedented times she feels extremely lucky. She鈥檚 looking forward to working with our excellent MA students as well as with friendly and intellectually stimulating colleagues.

Alex joins us from the Philosophy Department of the State University of New York at Buffalo, and lists her primary areas of interest as ethics, metaethics, and aesthetics.

Ought Implies Can?

鈥淥ne of my major research interests concerns how our abilities are related to our moral obligations,鈥� she says.

This issue is something that Alex has written extensively about, arguing against the principle that if something can be done then we are morally obligated to do it (commonly called the 鈥榦ught implies can鈥� principle). Her book, What We Ought and What We Can (Routledge, 2019) points out that since we鈥檙e not able to do everything we ought to do the principle is flawed. Even if it can be done by someone, we may not be able to do it, even if we ought to.

For example, someone might make a promise to someone else and then become unable to fulfill that promise. But that doesn鈥檛 mean the promise has disappeared. Sometimes, we are sadly unable to do everything that we ought to do, and that is just a real part of life.

Aesthetics

Another current research direction looks at moral and aesthetic normativity.

鈥淎t the moment, I'm thinking a lot about whether there are aesthetic truths or facts, and if so, what that means for our feelings and behavior,鈥� she says.

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that deals with topics like beauty, art and the nature of aesthetic experiences. Alex explains it as moving beyond the philosophy of art and encompassing our emotional responses and judgment of the experience. With broader scope, it includes our experience of nature, for example, and is more to do with our senses鈥攁ppreciating our sensory input and feeling pleasure.

When teaching, Alex uses a lot of different artistic styles and media; she likes to talk about things as diverse as painting, food, pop music, and movies to illustrate to discuss the philosophical issues.

鈥淚 think that people who don't frequent art museums feel like art is foreign or confusing or difficult, when it shouldn't be,鈥� she explains.

Outreach and Cosplay

Her outreach beyond academic philosophy continues in her blog, Aesthetics for Birds. It features a small group of contributors, publishing under the tagline Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art for Everyone. The blog regularly includes guest posts from people working in aesthetics and related areas, both in philosophy and in other related disciplines.  

The blog tackles topics such as arguing about art on the internet, or Instagram filters, and video game ethics. Alex also writes for the blog. For example, you can read her exploration of , where she argues that cosplay is an important form of self-expression, especially for marginalized communities.

鈥淎esthetics is much more inclusive,鈥� Alex explains. 鈥淚t鈥檚 concerned with experiences. Instead of just thinking about landscape painting, for example, it鈥檚 also about considering the landscape itself.鈥� It鈥檚 not surprising when Alex pushes this further, saying that it鈥檚 important to keep aesthetics in mind even when thinking about issues like climate change.

Aesthetics seems especially relevant for our current situation, where we鈥檝e seen a huge revival in tactile and pleasing projects such as knitting and breadmaking as people seek for ways to get through the pandemic. As Alex proposes, daily life can be constant aesthetic experience and delight.