Dr Jukka Mikkonen
Researcher
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
jukka.mikkonen [at] protonmail.com
About me
I study environmental aesthetics, the aesthetics of nature in particular. At the moment I work on aesthetic aspects in environmentalism.
Before the University of Jyväskylä, I worked at the University of Tampere and the University of Helsinki. In addition, I have been a visiting scholar at the University of Warwick, the University of York (UK), Harvard University, and the University of Parma.
Recent publications
‘Aesthetics in Biodiversity Conservation’ (w/ Kaisa J. Raatikainen). The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 8.6.2024.
Biodiversity loss is an immense ecological crisis of our time. But while “biodiversity” has become a buzzword in media and policy, conservationists have found it difficult to build a common understanding on the nature and severity of biodiversity loss and the means to tackle it. Perhaps surprisingly, many biologists and philosophers have proposed that biodiversity might be best defended with reference to its aesthetic value. This article explores whether aesthetic values could provide strong support for biodiversity conservation. By exploring the question from the viewpoints of species diversity, ecosystem diversity, and genetic diversity, we argue that there is a mismatch between apparent and real biodiversity and that aesthetics can give a limited support for biodiversity conservation at best.
‘Replies to Vendrell Ferran, Piercey, Schechtman, and Collins’. Philosophia, Vol. 52 No. 1, preprint 17 Jan 2024.
This is my response to the commentaries in the book symposium on Philosophy, Literature, and Understanding. In the four sections, I comment i) Íngrid Vendrell Ferran’s defence of the ‘experientialist view’ in literary cognitivism and her related conception of ‘radical neo-cogntivism’; ii) Robert Piercey’s view of the epistemic value of plots and emplotment; iii) Marya Schechtman’s revisionist ideas of self-narration; and finally iv) David Collins’s suggestion of the value of an imaginative engagement with the author of an artwork.
‘Précis of Philosophy, Literature, and Understanding: On Reading and Cognition’. Philosophia, Vol. 52, No. 1, preprint 22 Sep 2023.
This précis gives an overview of my book Philosophy, Literature, and Understanding: On Reading and Cognition which is the subject of a book symposium in Philosophia. The overview covers the book’s four chapters that explore i) the nature of literary imagination, ii) the epistemic value of narratives, iii) the concepts of cognition, knowledge and understanding with regard to fiction, and iv) evidence for claims about the epistemic impact of literary works on their readers.
‘Book Symposium: Commentary from Jukka Mikkonen’. Patrik Engisch & Julia Langkau (eds.), The Philosophy of Fiction. The Junkyard 2 Feb 2023.
Article & book proposal refereeing
Acta Analytica, Apparatus, Bloomsbury, British Journal for Aesthetics, Cambridge Journal of Education, Dialogue: The Canadian Philosophical Review, Environmental Values, Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology, Journal of the American Philosophical Association, Mind, Mind & Language, Nature and Culture, Open Book Publishers, People and Nature, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Poetics Today, Res Philosophica, Routledge, Southern Journal of Philosophy, Teorema &c.
Other
Page last updated: 18 Jun 2024.