Approach to Aesthetics Collected Papers on Philosophical Aesthetics

by Sibley, Frank; Benson, John; Redfern, Betty; Cox, Jeremy Roxbee

• ISBN13: 9780198238997
• ISBN10: 0198238991
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-08-09
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

Approach to Aesthetics is the complete collection of Frank Sibley's articles on philosophical aesthetics. Their appearance within a single volume will be welcome to scholars and students of aesthetics. The value of the book is greatly enhanced by the inclusion of five substantial paperswritten in his later years and hitherto unpublished. Most of the published papers are concerned with a group of related topics: the nature of aesthetic qualities and their relation to non-aesthetic qualities, the relation of aesthetic description to aesthetic evaluation, the different levels ofevaluation, the objectivity of aesthetic judgement. The later papers constitute both a continuation and a significant development of Sibley's individual approach to aesthetics. One group of papers discusses the distinction between attributive and predicative uses of adjectives, first elucidating thedistinction, and then considering its application to 'beautiful' and 'ugly'. Another major paper is an extensive study of the aesthetic significance of tastes and smells, a topic Sibley considered to be much neglected, whose examination could throw interesting light on the boundaries of the conceptof the aesthetic. This collection constitutes a wide ranging yet coherent account of aesthetics by one of the most acute philosophical minds of his generation, one which is and will continue to be a source of controversy and a model of analytical method.

Author Biography

Frank Sibley (1923-1996) was the first Professor of Philosophy to be appointed at Lancaster University, a position he occupied until his retirement.

Table of Contents

Editors' Introduction	ix
Aesthetic Concepts	1	(23)
Aesthetics and the Looks of Things	24	(9)
Aesthetic and Non-aesthetic	33	(19)
About Taste	52	(2)
Colours	54	(17)
Objectivity and Aesthetics	71	(17)
Particularity, Art, and Evaluation	88	(16)
General Criteria and Reasons in Aesthetics	104	(15)
Originality and Value	119	(16)
Arts or the Aesthetic---Which Comes First?	135	(7)
Making Music Our Own	142	(12)
Adjectives, Predicative and Attributive	154	(22)
Aesthetic Judgements: Pebbles, Faces, and Fields of Litter	176	(14)
Some Notes on Ugliness	190	(17)
Tastes, Smells, and Aesthetics	207	(49)
Why the Mona Lisa May Not be a Painting	256	(17)
Bibliography of the Publications of Frank Sibley	273