Aesthetics Today A Reader

by Stecker, Robert; Gracyk, Ted

• ISBN13: 9780742564374
• ISBN10: 0742564371
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-16
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Aesthetics Today: A Reader provides centrally important texts that explore the current state of the debate on twelve major topics within aesthetics and the philosophy of art. With the exception of excerpts from classic texts by Hume, Kant, Hanslick, and Collingwood, all the readings are by contemporary authors. Most of these essays have been abridged by the editors to enhance their accessibility and to maximize the ability to present a variety of positions on a given topic. Aesthetics Today provides a wide-ranging introduction to aesthetic theory and philosophy of art for readers, particularly university students, who seek an overview of major controversies, theories, and writers. Each chapter features three to four contrasting views of each topic introduced by an original essay that outlines the chapter's central issues, concepts, and controversies. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Robert Stecker is professor of philosophy at Central Michigan University, and author of Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art, second edition. Ted Gracyk is professor of philosophy at Minnesota State University, Moorehead.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Environmental Aesthetics: Natural Beauty	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
"Nature, Aesthetic Judgment, and Objectivity"	p. 4
"Interpreting Environments"	p. 11
"Fact and Fiction in the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature"	p. 19
"Do Non-Native Species Threaten the Natural Environment?"	p. 27
Further Reading	p. 32
Conceptions of the Aesthetic: Aesthetic Experience	p. 33
Introduction	p. 33
"Analytic of the Beautiful"	p. 37
"What Makes a Situation Aesthetic?"	p. 45
"Art and the Domain of the Aesthetic"	p. 53
"Aesthetic Communication"	p. 62
Further Reading	p. 71
Conceptions of the Aesthetic: Aesthetic Properties	p. 73
Introduction	p. 73
"Of the Standard of Taste"	p. 76
"Objectivity and Aesthetics"	p. 85
"Sensitivity, Sensibility, and Aesthetic Realism"	p. 92
"Aesthetic Properties, Evaluative Force, and Differences of Sensibility"	p. 100
Further Reading	p. 108
What Is Art?	p. 109
Introduction	p. 109
"Art Proper"	p. 113
"An Aesthetic Definition of Art"	p. 122
"The Art Circle"	p. 130
"Non-Western Art and Art's Definition"	p. 137
Further Reading	p. 146
What Kind of Object Is a Work of Art?	p. 149
Introduction	p. 149
"Art and Its Objects"	p. 154
"Interpretation: Process and Structure"	p. 160
"Musical Works as Eternal Types"	p. 169
"Types, Indicated and Initiated"	p. 176
Further Reading	p. 183
Interpretation and the Problem of the Relevant Intention	p. 185
Introduction	p. 185
"An Intentional Demonstration?"	p. 189
"A Paradox in Intentionalism"	p. 198
"On What a Text Is and How It Means"	p. 205
"Allusion and Intention in Popular Art"	p. 213
Further Reading	p. 221
Representation: Fiction	p. 223
Introduction	p. 223
"The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse"	p. 227
"What Is Fiction?"	p. 234
"How Can We Fear and Pity Fictions?"	p. 242
"Spelunking, Simulation, and Slime: On Being Moved by Fiction"	p. 249
Further Reading	p. 258
Representation: Depiction	p. 259
Introduction	p. 259
"Seeing-as, Seeing-in, and Pictorial Representation"	p. 262
"Pictorial Recognition"	p. 268
"Pictorial Art and Visual Experience"	p. 276
Further Reading	p. 284
Expressiveness in Music	p. 285
Introduction	p. 285
"The Representation of Feeling Is Not the Content of Music"	p. 288
"The Expression of Emotion in Music"	p. 296
"A New Romantic Theory of Expression"	p. 304
Further Reading	p. 313
Artistic Value	p. 315
Introduction	p. 315
"Aesthetic Judgment, Principles, and Properties"	p. 318
"Art and Interaction"	p. 326
"Empiricism and the Heresy of the Separable Value"	p. 333
Further Reading	p. 342
Ethical, Aesthetic, and Artistic Value	p. 343
Introduction	p. 343
"The Ethical Criticism of Art"	p. 346
"Tragedy and Moral Value"	p. 354
"Art, Morality and Ethics: On the (Im)moral Character of Art Works and Interrelations to Artistic Value"	p. 362
"Aesthetics as a Guide to Ethics"	p. 370
Further Reading	p. 378
The Humanly Made Environment	p. 381
Introduction	p. 381
"Art and Architecture"	p. 384
"Architectural Principles in an Age of Nihilism"	p. 393
"Reconsidering the Aesthetics of Architecture"	p. 401
Further Reading	p. 406
About the Authors	p. 409
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