How Solving a Dopamine Puzzle Might Resolve the Paradox of Painful Art

Aesthetic hedonism, the view that the value of an artwork is determined by its pleasure-inducing properties, is largely regarded as the default theory of aesthetic value. However, aesthetic hedonism has significant challenges as well. One notable challenge points to the high value we ascribe to some works of art that arouse negative or unpleasant sensations, like Picasso’s Guernica. Relatedly, the paradox of painful art points out that some of us seek out art that evokes unpleasant sensations yet avoid unpleasant sensations in real life. If this claim is correct, then it appears that aesthetic hedonism is false. With this project, I draw a parallel between the paradox of painful art and a neurobiological puzzle (the cocaine puzzle), which asks how cocaine induces hedonic sensations even though it does not directly activate hedonic neural mechanisms. I ultimately demonstrate that the neural mechanisms that can resolve the cocaine puzzle can also resolve the paradox of painful art. Importantly, this response to the paradox of painful art also defends aesthetic hedonism since it highlights underlying hedonic mechanisms that become active even in the face of painful art.