Aesthetics (Oxford Readers) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192892754 ISBN 13: 9780192892751

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Can we ever claim to understand a work of art or be objective about it? Why have cultures thought it important to separate out a group of objects and call them art? What does aesthetics contribute to our understanding of the natural landscape? Are the concepts of art and the aesthetic elitist? Addressing these and other issues in aesthetics, this important new Oxford Reader includes articles by authors ranging from Aristotle and Xie-He to Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Michael Baxandall, and Susan Sontag. It focuses on why art and a variety of aesthetics matter to us, and on how perceivers participate in and contribute to the experience of appreciating a work of art. With its multicultural and multidisciplinary scope, this volume shows how anthropology, art history, Chinese theories of painting, and other perspectives both enrich and provide alternatives to classic philosophical accounts of art and the aesthetic.

About this title

Synopsis:

This new Reader offers an important new resource, combining classic accounts of the nature of aesthetics with the latests methods of approaching the subject. With its valuable multicultural approach, not confined to the consideration of fine art, it focuses on questions that examine why art and the aesthetic matter to us and how perceivers participate in and contribute to the experience of appreciating a work of art. Why have people thought it important to separate out a group of objects and call them 'art'? Is it inappropriate to think of something as art when its creator would not have considered it in that way? Are the concepts of art and the aesthetic elitist? Can we ever understand an artwork or be objective about it? Including articles ranging from Aristotle and Xie-He to Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Michael Baxandall and Susan Sontag, this Reader is unique in providing both Western and non-Western responses to aesthetics.

About the Author:

Susan L. Feagin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, specializing in aesthetics. She has been on the board of trustees for the American Society for Aesthetics, and president of the Central States Philosophical Association in 1996. Contributor to the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, The British Journal of Aesthetics, Philosophy and Literature, Philosophical Studies, and The American Philosophical Quarterly. Patrick Maynard is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, where he teaches aesthetics and the history of philosophy at all levels. He is guest editor for the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Contributor to the TLS, LRB, and Current Anthropology.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0192892754
• ISBN 13: 9780192892751
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432
• Editor: Feagin Susan L.