Aesthetics The Big Questions

by Korsmeyer, Carolyn

• ISBN13: 9780631205944
• ISBN10: 0631205942
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-11-09
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Philosophers have considered questions raised by the nature of art, of beauty, and critical appreciation since ancient times, and the discipline of aesthetics has a long tradition that stretches from Plato to the present. Aesthetics has also been the subject of a number of theoretical challenges that investigate the conceptual frameworks customarily assumed by theories of art. This collection of essays assembles classic and contemporary texts to present both the tradition of aesthetic theory and the kinds of questions and challenges that it confronts today, both from other cultural traditions and from theoretical movements such as feminism and postmodernism.

Author Biography

Carolyn Korsmeyer is Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is the editor (with Peggy Zeglin Brand) of Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics (1995) and (with Hilde Hein) Aesthetics in Feminist Perspective (1993) and the author (with Dubois, Kelly, Kennedy, and Robinson) of Feminist Scholarship: Kindling in the Groves of Academe (1985).

Table of Contents

What is Art?

Preface

The Live Creature

The Artworld

Crafty Women and the Hierarchy of the Arts

Zen and the Art of Tea

Dressing Down Dressing Up: The Philosophic Fear of Fashion

Experience and Appreciation

How Do We Encounter Art?

Preface

A Contested Term

What is "Aesthetic"?

The Aesthetic Attitude

Locating the Aesthetic

From Truth and Method

How is Art Presented to the Public?

Artistic Dropouts

Museums: From Object to Experience

The MoMA's Hot Mamas

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Aesthetic Evaluation: Who Decides?

Preface

Of the Standard of Taste

From Distinction

Disinterestedness and Political Art

High and Low Thinking About High and Low Art

Can We Learn from Art?

Preface

From The Republic

The Sovereignty of Good

From Love's Knowledge

Carnage and Glory, Legends and Lies

Paintings and Their Places

Tragedy, Sublimity, Horror

Why Do We Enjoy Painful Experiences in Art?

Preface

Tragedy

From the Poetics

From The Birth of Tragedy

Sublimity

Descent into the Maelstrom

From A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

From The Critique of Judgement

Horror

From The Philosophy of Horror

Realist Horror

Where is the Artist in the Work of Art?

Preface

Genius and Creativity

From Critique of Judgement

Gender and Genius

Interpreting the Artist in Society

What is an Author?

Truth and other Cultures

Musical Thinking and Thinking About Music

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