Art Fom Cognitivism [paper presentation]
Hadravová T. (2026) Paper presentation at the European Society for Aesthetics Conference, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
The aim of the talk is to reconstruct Langer’s cognitivist position. I propose to develop her well-known account of art as the symbolic expression of feeling into a position in which the primary bearer of cognitive value is not an individual artwork but an art form.
Embodied Feelings? Susanne K. Langer and Arthur C. Danto in a Dialogue on Art, Emotions, and Life [poster]
Lojdová Š. (2026) Poster presentation at Artistic Angles, Philosophical Circles, Poetic Dots, and Technical Lines. Susanne K. Langer Conference, TU Vienna.
What kind of cognitivist is Langer? [poster]
Hadravová T. (2026). Poster presentation at Artistic Angles, Philosophical Circles, Poetic Dots, and Technical Lines. Susanne K. Langer Conference, TU Vienna.
Why does the belief that women are more romantic persist despite empirical evidence? [open peer commentary]
Hadravová T. (2026). Behavioral and Brain Sciences 49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X25102434
This peer commentary to Wahring, Simpson, & Van Lange’s research paper reflects on why the belief that romantic love holds greater significance for women than for men persists despite empirical evidence to the contrary. It suggests this assumption is shaped by media portrayals of romantic love and argues its persistence across gender lines is sustained by the entrenchment of a male perspective that media representations help normalize.
On the Emptiness of Europa’s Face [research paper]
Hadravová T. (2025). The British Journal of Aesthetics. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayaf045
In this paper, I engage in a dialogue about the influence of ethical value on the aesthetic value of a work of art. I focus on a particularly contested painting—Titian’s Rape of Europa—and highlight its ambivalences, which make it difficult to assess its moral standing in definitive terms. As part of an objection to my argument, I turn to Susanne K. Langer’s remark on the sadist’s perspective, which, as she argues, appropriates the victim’s pain. I then ask whether Europa’s perspective might similarly be absorbed into that of the perpetrator—and, by extension, the spectator.
De-humanize! Reflections on Psychological and Ethical Limits of More-than-human Aesthetics [research paper]
Hadravová T. (2025). ESPES. The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics. 14 (2). 189-203. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18641111
According to Susanne K. Langer (1964, p. 76), art – “the practice of creating perceptible forms expressive of human feeling” – is particularly significant when feeling itself, on a grand, societal scale, is undergoing change. By “feeling,” she does not mean everyday emotions but the deeper currents beneath them – what she calls “self-consciousness” and “world-consciousness” (Langer, 1964, p. 81). And by “expressive” she does not mean “evoking,” but rather “conceiving” or “articulating”. If she is right, the transformations in how the world is sensed, palpable for some time now, should be reflected in contemporary art. Which forms does art give to recent shifts in human sensibility? What insights into the structures of feeling does it formulate and offer for reflection and understanding?
This paper undertakes a Langer-inspired exploration of what is at stake in current reconfigurations of human feeling and the insights contemporary art affords. I discuss – and, in the end, criticize – one type of artistic response to the contemporary situation, often framed as the end of anthropocentrism. Shorthand for this response is the call for de-humanization.
Film as a Dream of the Modern Man: Interpretation of Susanne Langer’s “Note on the Film.” [research paper; reprint, slightly revised]
Hadravova, T. (2025). History of Media Studies. https://doi.org/10.32376/d895a0ea.38a6f049
A revised republication of the paper originally published in Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 4, no. 1 (2020): 38–48. The republication is part of a special section of the History of Media Studies, titled “Susanne Langer on Film”, which includes “A Note on Film” by S.K. Langer.
Stories Told to Hide the Truth. Climate Disinformation, Animal Behaviour and the Nature of Narratives [research paper]
Lojdová Š. (2025). ESPES. The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics. 14 (2). 204-219. https://espes.ff.unipo.sk/index.php/espes/article/view/55
In this paper, I challenge the argument by Marta Tafalla that one can learn about global climate change by listening to animals and the stories nature itself tells us. I examine the strategies and narratives used by antienvironmentalists and demonstrate that they employ the same narrative structures as Tafalla when telling animal stories.
Vlastimil Zuska: Estetický prožitek. Vrstvy, úrovně a fáze estetické zkušenosti. Praha, Karolinum 2024. 236 s. [book review]
Lojdová Š. (2025). Filosofický časopis, 2025 (3), 569–573. [in Czech]
The book review of the monograph Aesthetic Experience, Its Levels, Strata, and Phases by Vlastimil Zuska.