Horror and Hedonic Ambivalence

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70 (2):203-212 (2012)
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Abstract

I argue that a solution to the paradox of horror should accommodate the possibility of enjoying an aesthetic experience partly in virtue of its being painful. This possibility is typically thought to be ruled out by the very nature of pleasure and pain. I argue that this is not so for adverbial accounts of pleasure. Using Aristotle's theory of pleasure as an example of an adverbial account, I show that it is possible for to enjoy an aesthetic experience partly in virtue of its being painful.

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Matthew Strohl
University of Montana

Citations of this work

The authority of pleasure.Keren Gorodeisky - 2021 - Noûs 55 (1):199-220.
On Liking Aesthetic Value.Keren Gorodeisky - 2019 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 102 (2):261-280.
Agency and aesthetic identity.Kenneth Walden - 2023 - Philosophical Studies 180 (12):3253-3277.
Art and painful emotion.Matthew Strohl - 2018 - Philosophy Compass 14 (1):e12558.

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References found in this work

Ambivalent desires and the problem with reduction.Derek Baker - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 150 (1):37-47.

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