AAP 2026 CONFERENCE: Full Schedule

11:00am NZST

Cognitive Value of Fiction in Relation to Perspectival Imagination

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:00am - 11:55am NZST

This paper defends the cognitive value of art by analyzing the role of perspectival imagination in the appreciation of fictional narratives. Against the anti-cognitivist challenge posed by Peter Lamarque(2006) that cognitive value is irrelevant to artistic value, I argue that perspectival imagination is both essential to the practice of appreciating fictional narratives and a source of genuine cognitive value.
Drawing on Elisabeth Camp(2017)'s account of perspective as an "open-ended disposition", I distinguish two modes of perspectival imagination: imagination oriented toward the work-world, and imagination oriented toward fictional characters. Both are argued to be indispensable for adequate comprehension of fictional narratives, and thus constitutive of their artistic value. I then examine imaginative resistance as evidence that appreciators continuously evaluate the perspectives they occupy during engagement with fiction. Finally, I argue that both empathy and imaginative resistance, as manifestations of perspectival imagination, yield cognitive value: enabling appreciators to interpret unfamiliar viewpoints, reflect on their own perspectives, and develop a richer understanding of human experience.

Speakers

Su-An Do

Department of Aesthetics, Seoul National University

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:00am - 11:55am NZST
MSB1.20

Aesthetics, In Person

12:00pm NZST

Imagining New Narratives: Documentary Film, Trauma, and Affective Justice

Thursday July 9, 2026 12:00pm - 12:55pm NZST

MSB1.20

I show that documentary film, and art more broadly, can function as a vehicle for both epistemic and affective justice in contexts of psychological trauma. The central claim is that trauma often persists not only because of the initial harm suffered, but because survivors are denied the epistemic and emotional resources necessary to process that harm. Through the imaginative reshaping of narrative, documentary can help lessen what the author calls "dwelling," the temporal and affective stagnation that is characteristic of trauma. By enabling new narratives to emerge, documentaries can facilitate forms of closure, recognition, and emotional repair for both participants and audiences. This can then allow for the argument to be applied to art more generally, showing how art can serve as an alternative in areas where other techniques for resolution might not be available.

Speakers

G Hanley-Steemers

Thursday July 9, 2026 12:00pm - 12:55pm NZST
MSB1.20

Aesthetics, In Person

2:00pm NZST

Aesthetic Resonance and Imagined Community: Rethinking the Social Basis of Aesthetic Value

Thursday July 9, 2026 2:00pm - 2:55pm NZST

MSB1.20

This paper argues that aesthetic value can arise from aesthetic resonance, a psychological experience of connection that generates an imagined aesthetic community. While Riggle (2024) locates aesthetic value in shared practices, this view struggles to account for solitary and cross-temporal experiences and risks treating them as merely instrumental.
I propose that, in aesthetic experience, individuals can imaginatively resonate with others—viewers, listeners, or artists—without actual interaction. This process forms a psychologically real but imagined community, extending across time. Drawing on Anderson’s notion of imagined communities, I argue that such resonance generates intersubjective meaning and a sense of connection, thereby constituting aesthetic value. It also provides a psychological basis for, and may motivate engagement in, practice-based aesthetic communities.

Speakers

Kai Wang

University of Sydney

I am currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Sydney. My primary research interests lie in aesthetics, analytic philosophy, and the philosophy of games.

Thursday July 9, 2026 2:00pm - 2:55pm NZST
MSB1.20

Aesthetics, In Person

3:00pm NZST

Film and the Mode of Dream

Thursday July 9, 2026 3:00pm - 3:55pm NZST

MSB1.36 & 37

I take it that in watching a film one is imaginatively presented with an as-if reality. In this talk I’d like to explore the idea that the mode of viewing a film is closely analogous to the imaginative mode of viewing a dream. I shall take up and extend Suzanne Langer’s suggestion in “A Note on the Film” that film is presented to the viewer in “the dream mode” by reflecting on the relation between dream and imagination as theorized by Bernard Williams (“Imagination and the Self”). I end with some tentative thoughts about why this connection between film and dream is important.

Speakers

David Macarthur

Professor of Philosophy, University of Sydney

Thursday July 9, 2026 3:00pm - 3:55pm NZST
MSB1.36 & 37

Aesthetics, Remote

AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

11:00am NZST

Su-An Do

12:00pm NZST

G Hanley-Steemers

2:00pm NZST

Kai Wang

3:00pm NZST

David Macarthur

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