My paper on aesthetic reactive attitudes is now out in Phil Imprint! This one took many years and several dramatically different forms, and I'm really happy with the final version. Thanks @bweatherson.bsky.social for the nice summary, and be sure to check out all the papers that dropped today :)
I had such a blast talking with Justin & Laura about "Enemy," a puzzly and chaotic film—check out our conversation!
Robbie Kubala
Robbie Kubala
Happy to share the published version of "Art, Understanding, and Mystery"! I often hear some version of the thought that it's bad to understand artworks; this paper attempts to make that claim precise and show one way to defend artistic understanding! journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article...
The NYT published a cool piece on crossword art that quotes me and my work! www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/c...
Thanks @bencenanay.bsky.social for the super nice review of my chapter in "The Proustian Mind": "probably the most successful in that volume with regards to the double duty of helping us appreciate the novel as well as giving us independent philosophical arguments"! academic.oup.com/jaac/advance...
Check out my interview with @rkubala.bsky.social on the aesthetics of crossword puzzles!!! Why do crosswords merit aesthetic experience? Can they give rise to the sublime? Are British- better than US-style crosswords? Are crossword puzzles ever art?
@rkubala.bsky.social, @adamlovett.bsky.social, and I have a new paper forthcoming in the Journal of Philosophy. It’s called “On the value of irreplaceable objects” – Here’s a thread!
philpapers.org/rec/KUBOTV 1/n
My paper “Aesthetic Value and the Practice of Aesthetic Valuing” won the 2026 Arthur Danto Prize, and there will be a symposium on the paper at the upcoming Eastern APA with @rkubala.bsky.social and @kennywalden.bsky.social. I hope my fellow conferencefolk will join us!
Robbie Kubala
Just wanted to share this wonderful news: The Lebowitz Prize went to aesthetics for the first time in its history. Congratulations to @domlopes.bsky.social and Samantha! I can't wait to see what they do together!
www.pbk.org/2025-lebowit...
Apparent orthodoxy holds that artistic understanding is finally valuable. Artistic understanding—grasping, as such, the features of an artwork that make it aesthetically or artistically good or bad—is...
Many philosophers got pushed into philosophy not because they read some piece of especially impressive philosophical work but because their philosophical c
