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Aesthetic injustice

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17.08.2026

Daisy Dixon, a prize-winning art philosopher, introduced the idea of 'aesthetic injustice', a type of injustice when one is deprived of access to art or beauty. Denotatively, it is when we unfairly judge, exclude or devalue someone on the basis of their look, style, taste or sensory qualities. However, outer beauty must not be equated with moral worth. Aesthetic beauty lies in what one does, says or contributes to impart excellence in things around, animate or inanimate. Connotatively, 'an aesthetic injustice is a social arrangement that harms people in their aesthetic capacities, such as capacities to appreciate, make, curate or collect.' Aesthetic injustice is meted out to people when they are not made capable of delivering up to their potential.

This idea leads us to economist-philosopher Amartya Sen's 'capability approach'. The approach postulates that 'freedom to achieve well-being is a matter of what people are able to do and to be.' It defines 'a good life not by income or utility,........

© The Express Tribune