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Eileen John

My research concerns how art and creative practices engage us as cognitive and ethical 'works-in-progress'. I have a specific interest in literature and its philosophical and ethical significance, and a broad interest in the kinds of thinking, autonomy, and sociability that are enabled by the aesthetic and artistic aspects of life. My research has addressed issues such as why meals are not art, why we should not strive to have consistent aesthetic personalities, why we care about fictional characters, how moral learning from art is possible, whether aesthetics can be 'global', and how literary language evokes processes of thinking. Currently I am working on humour and fiction, and on the nature and importance of disagreement about art. Authors who have prompted some of this work include Elizabeth Bishop, Willa Cather, J. M. Coetzee, Julio Cort谩zar, Lydia Davis, Emily Dickinson, Jenny Erpenbeck, Thomas Hardy, Henrik Ibsen, Charles Johnson, Herman Melville, Toni Morrison, Flannery O'Connor, Grace Paley, Marilynne Robinson, and Jos茅 Saramago.

Selected publications

'Lydia Davis and the Power of Sentences', in Close Reading as Attentional Practice, Marion Thain and Ewan Jones, eds. (Edinburgh UP, 2025), pp. 219-41.
'' Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 60 (2), 2023:115-130.
'Moral Learning from Art', in The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Art, ed. James Harold. 2023.
'Can Aesthetics Be Global?', Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, Vol. 93: Expanding Horizons, 2023.
'Law, Fiction, and Moral Standing', in Lizensur. Literatur und Recht, vol 7., Achermann, E., Arjomand-Zoike, D., Celik, N., eds. (J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66334-9_14
'The Experience of Fiction', in The Philosophy of Fiction: Imagination and Cognition, Patrik Engisch and Julia Langkau, eds. (Routledge, 2023).
'Walton and Fictional Characters', in Art, Representation, and Make-Believe: Essays on the Philosophy of Kendall L. Walton, Sonia Sedivy, ed. (Routledge, 2021).
'', Cr铆tica: Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosof铆a 53 (157), 2021.
'Dickinson and Pivoting Thought', in The Poetry of Emily Dickinson: Philosophical Perspectives, Elisabeth Camp, ed. (Oxford UP, 2021). Open access for March 2023 as part of OUP's
focus.

.
, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 78(3), 2020.
'Making Human Homes: Willa Cather on People and Wilderness', in Anticipatory Materialisms in Literature and Philosophy, 1790-1930, Jo Carruthers, Nour Dakkak, and Rebecca Spence, eds. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
, British Journal of Educational Studies 67, 2019.
, Journal of Philosophy of Education 52(4), 2019.
'Emma and Defective Action', in Jane Austen's Emma, E. M. Dadlez, ed. (Oxford UP, 2018).
, Metodo 6(1), 2018
'Coetzee and Eros: A Critique of Moral Philosophy', in Beyond the Ancient Quarrel: Literature, Philosophy, and J. M. Coetzee, Patrick Hayes and Jan Wilm, eds. (Oxford UP, 2017).
'Empathy in Literature', in Routledge Handbook to Philosophy of Empathy, Heidi Maibom, ed. (Routledge, 2017).
'Caring about Characters', in Fictional Characters, Real Problems: The Search for Ethical Content in Literature, Garry Hagberg, ed. (Oxford UP, 2016).
'Theme鈥�, in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Literature, No毛l Carroll and John Gibson, eds. (Routledge, 2016).
'Moral Feelings from Rocky Fictional Ground', in Morality and Emotion, Sara Gra莽a Da Silva, ed. (Routledge, 2016).
, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 114(3), 2014. (chosen by as one of the 2014 Fab Flock Five)
, Estetika 51(2), 2014. (won 2015 article from Finnish and Slovak aesthetics societies)
, Philosophical Explorations 16(3), 2013.
, Philosophy and Literature 37(2), 2013.
'Art and Knowledge', in The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics, 3rd ed., Berys Gaut and Dominic Lopes, eds. (Routledge, 2013). [replaces chapter in 2001 edition]
'Literature, Pluralism, and the Critique of Evaluative Concepts', in Understanding Fiction: Knowledge and Meaning in Literature, J眉rgen Daiber, Eva-Maria Konrad, Thomas Petraschka, and Hans Rott, eds. (Mentis, 2012).
, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70 (2), 2012.
'Literature and the Idea of Morality', in A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature, Garry Hagberg and Walter Jost, eds. (Blackwell, 2010).
'Poetry and Cognition', in A Sense of the World: Fiction, Narrative and Knowledge, John Gibson, Wolfgang Huemer, and Luca Pocci, eds. (Routledge, 2007).
'Artistic Value and Opportunistic Moralism', in Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art, Matthew Kieran, ed. (Blackwell, 2006). [reprinted in Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology, 2nd ed., Cahn, Shapshay and Ross, eds., Blackwell 2020]
Philosophy of Literature: Contemporary and Classic Readings, co-edited with Dominic Lopes (Blackwell, 2004).
'Literary Fiction and the Philosophical Value of Detail', in Imagination, Philosophy, and the Arts, Matthew Kieran and Dominic Lopes, eds. (Routledge, 2003).
'Images of Community in American Popular Culture,' co-authored with Nancy Potter, in Diversity and Community, Philip Alperson, ed. (Blackwell, 2002).
, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56(4), 1998.
, Henry James Review 18, 1997.
, Philosophy and Literature 19, 1995.

Selected book reviews

ALH Review XLVI, 2025: of Melville, Beauty, and American Literary Studies by Cody Marrs
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 2021: of Fiction: A Philosophical Analysis by Catharine Abell
Mind 2020: of Imagining and Knowing: The Shape of Fiction by Gregory Currie
Analysis 2019: of De Gustibus by Peter Kivy
Australasian Journal of Philosophy 2014: of Philosophy and the Novel by Alan H. Goldman
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2012: of J. M. Coetzee and Ethics: Philosophical Perspectives on Literature, eds. Anton Leist and Peter Singer
British Journal of Aesthetics 2009, 49(2): of Art, Emotion and Ethics by Berys Gaut
Philosophy in Review 2009, XXIX(5): review of On Form: Poetry, Aestheticism and the Legacy of a Word by Angela Leighton
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008: of Aesthetics and Literature by David Davies
British Journal of Aesthetics 2007, 47(2): of Aesthetics, Imagination and the Unity of Experience by R. K. Elliott
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 2002, 60(2): of Fiction and Metaphysics by Amie Thomasson