Introduction

This book takes up the problems that we run into when we judge works of art to be morally good or bad. This might seem like an unserious thing to do. In public discourse, such judgments are often born of prejudice or are mere devices for political scapegoating. For example, former senator Jesse Helms’s attacks on the alleged immorality of Mapplethorpe’s photography seem to have been grounded in his hatred and fear of gays and lesbians; leaders of the National Rifle Association routinely raise moral concerns about violent video games as means to distract people and to undermine public support for gun control. We ought not to take such moral judgments very seriously....