An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art

entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil in

case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to

deter him must be calculated to produce evil to some one else. The only part of

the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which

concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence

is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual

is sovereign.^20

This is, for Mill, explicitly and exclusively a political principle. Othersmaybe

reasoned with, persuaded, and entreated, if not compelled. But Mill’s pos-

ition does explicitly rule out almost all censorship, unless it can be shown

(“calculated”) that direct harm to others does result from the production and

circulation of certain works of art. When the harm principle is politically

established and censorship is loosened, then it is natural to let a thousand

flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend. Let each individual

judge what artistic works and moral values he or she favors, without worry-

ing so much about moral education. Friedrich Schlegel favored this kind of

artistic and moral experimentalism in arguing that“the will of the poet can

tolerate no law above itself.”^21 John Dewey argues similarly that

It belongs to the very character of the creative mind to reach out and seize any

material that stirs it so that the value of the material may be pressed out and

become the matter of a new experience...One of the functions of art is

precisely to sap the moralistic timidity that causes the mind to shy away from

some materials and to refuse to admit them into the clear and purifying light

of perceptive consciousness.^22

In a Deweyan experimentalist spirit and citing Nietzsche as a further precur-

sor, Richard Rorty urges us to follow strong poets, to embrace life and

libidinal energy, and to overcome our tendencies to small-mindedness and

fearfulness.^23 Engaging with imaginative art of all kinds is, Rorty argues,

(^20) J. S. Mill,“On Liberty,”in J. S. Mill,Utilitarianism; On Liberty; Essay on Bentham, ed. Mary
Warnock (New York: New American Library, 1974), pp. 126–250 at p. 135.
(^21) Friedrich Schlegel,“Athenaeum Fragments 116,”in Friedrich Schlegel,Philosophical
Fragments, trans. Peter Firchow (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1991),
p. 32.
(^22) Dewey,Art and Experience, p. 189.
(^23) See especially Richard Rorty,“The Contingency of Selfhood,”in R. Rorty,Contingency,
Irony, and Solidarity(Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 23–43.
230 An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art