Overview

From Plato to Goodman, many philosophers have addressed problems in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Nevertheless the central issues here have remained ill-defined. In this book, Cothey overcomes this to give a concise and systematic account of the leading philosophical ideas about art and aesthetics from ancient times to the present day. The author shows that the best-known philosophical theories of art only explain how our artistic interests relate to our other practical concerns by either denying the existence of beauty or by doubting the capacity of human beings to create things that are truly beautiful. The book proposes a new theory of aesthetic satisfaction and of artistic abilities which avoids these consequences, and which also explains why aesthetic experiences cannot be fully captured in words. This theory shows how aesthetics is connected with other areas of philosophy specifically with semantic problems about metaphor, with theories of cognition, and with the part of ethics to do with pleasure and the nature of enjoyment. The Nature of Art will force readers to re-examine their views on art, and it is a significant contribution to the new debate on aes

Full Product Details

Author:   A. L. Cothey
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 14.80cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 21.00cm
Weight:   0.362kg
ISBN:  

9780415033572

ISBN 10:   0415033578
Pages:   214
Publication Date:   13 December 1990
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Art is anomalous; 2. Forms of aesthetic scepticism: philistines and iconoclasts; 3. Historical note; 4. The central issues; 5. Aestheticism; Section 01 I Hedonism and the Theory of Taste; Section 01-01-01 1. General objections; Section 01-01-02 2. Beauty as a secondary quality: Hutcheson, Reid, Burke; Section 01-01-03 3. Beauty as a primary quality: Santayana. Bell; Section 01-01-04 4. Hume’s theory; Section 02 II Theories that Assign a Direct Practical F’urpose to Art; Section 02-01-01 1. Nutritional and medicinal analogies; Section 02-01-02 2. General difficulties; Section 02-01-03 3. Art as substitute satisfaction: Freud; Section 02-01-04 4. Tolstoy’s theory; Section 02-01-05 5. Art as a pseudo-capacity: Plato; Section 02-01-06 6. Beauty and inspiration: Plato; Section 02-01-07 7. Metaphysical aestheticism: Plotinus; Section 03 III Perfection and the Play of Cognition; Section 03-01-01 1. Aristotle’s theory of pleasure; Section 03-01-02 2. Beauty and perfection: a dilemma; Section 03-01-03 3. Rationalist aesthetics: Leibniz, Baumgarten; Section 03-01-04 4. Kant’s theory (I): the existence of a non-cognitive aim of cognition; Section 03-01-05 5. Kant’s theory (2): the sublime and the moral signijicance of beauty; Section 04 IV Art as the Experience of Metaphysical Truth; Section 04-01-01 1. The reception of Kant’s theory: Schiller, Schelling; Section 04-01-02 2. Art and nature: Schelling; Section 04-01-03 3. Art as the ‘sensuous presentation of the Absolute’: Hegel; Section 04-01-04 4. Hegel’s iconoclasm; Section 04-01-05 5. Art as respite: Schopenhauer; Section 04-01-06 6. Schopenhauer on music; Section 04-01-07 7. Conclusion: the needfor a theory offorms of knowledge; Section 05 V Art as Language; Section 05-01-01 1. Knowledge by acquaintance; Section 05-01-02 2. The phenomenological approach: Dufrenne; Section 05-01-03 3. Croce’s theory of intuition and expression; Section 05-01-04 4. Presentational symbols: Langer; Section 05-01-05 5. Art and the general theory of symbols: Goodman; Section 06 VI Art and Metaphor; Section 06-01-01 1. The relevance of metaphor; Section 06-01-02 2. Theories of metaphor; Section 06-01-03 3. Literalist and tropist prejudices; Section 06-01-04 4. Dead and faint metaphor; Section 06-01-05 5. Viewpoints and exponability; Section 06-01-06 6. Art as metaphor; Section 06-01-07 7. Unanswered questions; Section 07 VII Virtues and Indirect Pleasures; Section 07-01-01 1. A problem about pleasure and ‘completeness’; Section 07-01-02 2. Cognitive virtues; Section 07-01-03 3. A pragmatic theory of beauty; Section 07-01-04 4. Art as recreation; Section 07-01-05 5. The ‘institutional’ theory of art; Section 07-01-06 6. Cognitive pleasure: Aristotle on happiness; Section 08 VIII The Aim Behind Perception; Section 08-01-01 1. Cognition and the essentially metaphorical; Section 08-01-02 2. The intellect and the senses: Aristotle; Section 08-01-03 3. Further problems in understanding particulars; Section 08-01-04 4. The imagination as a pseudo-capacity; Section 08-01-05 5. Perception and kinaesthetic experience; Section 08-01-06 6. Productive skills and conceptual empathy; Section 09 IX Aesthetic Satisfaction; Section 09-01-01 1. Peculiarities of aesthetic enjoyment; Section 09-01-02 2. Perceptual knowledge; Section 09-01-03 3. Aesthetic understanding (1): empathic enjoyment; Section 09-01-04 4. Aesthetic understanding (2): beauty and necessity; Section 09-01-05 5. Beauty and experiential knowledge; Section 10 X Art and Artistic Abilities; Section 10-01-01 1. Questions about art; Section 10-01-02 2. Two theories of artistic abilities; Section 10-01-03 3. Creative imagination; Section 10-01-04 4. Inspiration and works of art; Section 10-01-05 5. Inspiration and artistic success; Section 10-01-06 6. Understanding art; Section 10-01-07 7. The value of art: aesthetic experience as a source of meaning; Bibliography; Index;

Reviews

The . . . work manifests the rich texture of a scholarly study, yet could easily be used alongside an anthology as a text for an upper-level undergraduate course in aesthetics. <br>-F. J. Hoffman, Choice, July/August 1991 <br>

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A. L. Cothey

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