Research

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

My research lies at the intersection of aesthetics, rationality, and normativity. One of the main aims of my work is to show that structural coherence is an important dimension of aesthetic rationality. I identify coherence requirements among aesthetic attitudes that are analogous to those familiar from theoretical and practical reasoning. I develop this idea through the defence of an Aesthetic Enkratic Principle (Martínez Marín, 2023), according to which rational agents are required to bring their aesthetic judgments and likings into alignment—to like what they judge aesthetically good and dislike what they judge aesthetically bad. I formulate this as a wide-scope requirement: it rules out certain combinations of attitudes without determining which attitude must change. This connects with my broader account of aesthetic appreciation as involving both perceptual discernment of aesthetic value and affective engagement that expresses one’s evaluative stance toward what is perceived (Martínez Marín & Schellekens, 2022).

My more recent work investigates the normative basis of these coherence requirements. If the Aesthetic Enkratic Principle tells us what aesthetic coherence demands, a further question is why such coherence matters. In The Normativity of Aesthetic Coherence (forthcoming), I argue that persistent incoherence can constitute a failure of aesthetic respect: a failure appropriately to acknowledge aesthetic value in one’s attitudes. I develop this idea through the structure of an imperfect duty, explaining how aesthetic requirements can be genuinely normative while preserving the latitude and revisability characteristic of aesthetic engagement.

These structural questions also lead to questions about aesthetic agency. If our aesthetic attitudes are subject to rational requirements, we need to understand when those attitudes genuinely count as our own and how they can be rationally revised. My papers on aesthetic autonomy (Martínez Marín, 2024) and aesthetic self-transformation (forthcoming) develops this dimension of the project. My current work extends these questions to aesthetic obligations (BJA Essay Prize 2026), the relation between aesthetic value and respect, and whether aesthetic value should be understood as good for the appreciator.

PUBLICATIONS

Below you can find a list of selected publications.

Dissertation

1. (2023). Aesthetic Valuing and the Self.  Uppsala University. Main supervisor: Elisabeth Schellekens. Examining Commitee: Michael Brady (Glasgow University), Daniela Dover (University of Oxford), Eileen John (University of Warwick). Faculty Examiner: Keren Gorodeisky (Auburn University).

Papers and Book Chapters

2.  (forthcoming). The Normativity of Aesthetic Coherence. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.

3. (forthcoming). The Rationality of Aesthetic Self-Transformation. Ergo. 

4. (2025). Appreciating Taylor’s Versions: An Aesthetic Love Story. In Polite, B. (Ed.). Taylor Swift and the Philosophy of Re-recording: The Art of Taylor's Versions. Bloomsbury.

5. (2025). Appreciating Taylor’s Versions: An Aesthetic Love Story. In Polite, B. (Ed.). Taylor Swift and the Philosophy of Re-recording: The Art of Taylor's Versions. Bloomsbury.

6. (2024). Varieties of Aesthetic Autonomy. Philosophy Compass, 19: e70012. 

7. (2023). The Aesthetic Enkratic Principle. British Journal of Aesthetics, 63 (2):251–268. 

8.  (2022). Aesthetic Taste: Perceptual Discernment or Emotional Sensibility? In Perspectives on Taste. Edited by Jeremy Wyatt, Dan Zeman and Julia Zakkou.  Routledge. (Co-authored with Elisabeth Schellekens). Pre-print here.

9.  (2020). Non-Standard Emotions and Aesthetic Understanding, Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics, 2 (57):135–49. (Winner of the Fabian Dorsch Essay Prize).

10. (2019) Robinson and Self-Conscious Emotions: Appreciation beyond (fellow) feeling, Debates in Aesthetics, 14, 1: 74-94.

Book Reviews

11.  (2024). Educating Character through the Arts. Edited By Laura D’olimpio, Panos Paris, and Aidan P Thompson. Philosophical Quarterly, 74 (3): 1049-1052. 2024.

In preparation

• Aesthetic obligations as imperfect duties (BJA Essay Prize 2026)

• Is aesthetic value good-for? (early days)

• A paper on beauty & rational coherence (with Jem Page).

• The philosophy of art collections (handout available).