Shen-yi Liao

Aesthetic adjectives lack uniform behavior

Abstract The goal of this short paper is to show that esthetic adjectives—exemplified by “beautiful” and “elegant”—do not pattern stably on a range of linguistic diagnostics that have been used to taxonomize the gradability properties of adjectives. We argue that a plausible explanation for this puzzling data involves distinguishing two properties of gradable adjectives that have been frequently conflated: whether an adjective’s applicability is sensitive to a comparison class, and whether an adjective’s applicability is context-dependent.

The Fictional Character of Pornography

Philosophers have made important contributions to the debate over pornography’s ethical status and permissibility from various perspectives, ranging from legal theory to philosophy of language.1 In this debate, the aesthetician’s perspective is noticeably absent.2 At the same time, although aestheticians have debated about pornography a great deal, they have primarily focused on the artistic status and the aesthetic value of pornography.3 In this chapter, we bring the aesthetician’s perspective to the most recent round of the debate over pornography’s ethical status and permissibility.