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Climate Change and Future Aesthetics

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Climate Change and the Humanities

Abstract

Philosophical discussions of climate change have mainly conceived of it as a moral or ethical problem, but climate change also raises new challenges for aesthetics . In this chapter I show that, in particular, climate change: (1) raises difficult questions about the status of aesthetic judgements about the future , or ‘future aesthetics’; and (2) puts into relief some challenging issues at the intersection of aesthetics and ethics . I maintain that we can rely on aesthetic predictions to enable us to grasp, in some sense, aesthetic value in environments affected by climate change and, through a discussion of three hypothetical cases, I argue that although moral considerations will press on aesthetic judgements, aesthetic value will not necessarily be trumped by them.

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Correspondence to Emily Brady .

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Brady, E. (2017). Climate Change and Future Aesthetics. In: Elliott, A., Cullis, J., Damodaran, V. (eds) Climate Change and the Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55124-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55124-5_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55123-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55124-5

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