Why pause and study this particular painting among so many others ranged on a gallery wall? Wonder, which Descartes called the first of the passions, is at play; it couples surprise with a wish to kno
Contemporary theorizing about art is dominated by a clash between two approaches: philosophers have characteristically taken the view that art is a vehicle of some universal meaning or truth, while art historians, and others working in the humanities, emphasize the concrete nature and historical particularity of the work of art. Is art capable of sustaining these two approaches? Or, as Kelly argues, is art rather determined by its historical particularity? If so, then if philosophers continue to pursue mainly the universality of art, they inadvertently end up exhibiting a disinterest and distrust in art. Kelly calls such disinterest and distrust 'iconoclasm', and in this book he discusses four philosophers - Heidegger, Adorno, Derrida, and Danto - who are ultimately iconoclasts despite their deep philosophical engagement with the arts. He concludes by suggesting ways in which iconoclasm in aesthetics can be avoided in the future.
Reissued for 2003! This comprehensive anthology offers a vast collection of classic and contemporary readings in aesthetics from both western and non-western sources. It is organized topically into fo
Since its publication in 1936, Walter Benjamin’s ?Artwork” essay has become a canonical text about the status and place of the fine arts in modern mass culture. Benjamin was especially concerned with
When the distinction Aristotle draws between per se being and potential/actual being is applied to the central books of the Metaphysics , argues Yu (State U. of New York-Buffalo) a distinct interpr
Evolutionary aesthetics is the attempt to understand the aesthetic judgement of human beings and their spontaneous distinction between "beauty" and "ugliness" as a biologically adapted ability to make
This new, completely revised and re-written edition of Aesthetics and subjectivity brings up to date the original book's account of the path of German philosophy from Kant, via Fichte and Holderlin, t
Since its publication in 1936, Walter Benjamin’s “Artwork” essay has become a canonical text about the status and place of the fine arts in modern mass culture. Benjamin was especially concerned with
Dynamic Structure of Reality makes available in English some of the most mature thought of the modern Spanish philosopher Xavier Zubiri. He first presented this material as a set of 1968 public lectur
From an Ontological Point of View is a highly original and accessible exploration of fundamental questions about what there is. John Heil discusses such issues as whether the world includes levels of
Imagination, Philosophy and the Arts is the first comprehensive collection of papers by philosophers examining the nature of imagination and its role in understanding and making art.Imagination is a c
Danto simply and entertainingly traces the evolution of the concept of beauty over the past century and explores how it was removed from the definition of art. Beauty then came to be regarded as a ser
A new statement of how "beauty" in nature is understood and appreciated.Aesthetic experience is one of the fundamental ways that we develop a relationship to our natural surroundings. Emily Brady prov
Transcendence and History is an analysis of what philosopher Eric Voegelin described as “the decisive problem of philosophy”: the dilemma of the discovery of transcendent meaning and the impact of thi
Res is a journal of anthropology and comparative aesthetics dedicated to the study of the object, in particular cult and belief objects and objects of art. The journal presents contributions by philos
