Philosophy of the Arts

Philosophy of the Arts presents a comprehensive and accessible introduction to those coming to aesthetics and the philosophy of art for the first time. The third edition is greatly enhanced by new sections on art and beauty, modern art, Aristotle and katharsis, and Hegel. Each chapter has been thoroughly revised with fresh material and extended discussions. As with previous editions, the book:

is jargon-free and will appeal to students of music, art history and literature as well as philosophy

looks at a wide range of the arts from film, painting and architecture to fiction, music and poetry

discusses a range of philosophical theories of thinkers such as Hume, Kant, Gaender, Collingwood, Derrida, Hegel and Croce

contains regular summaries and suggestions for further reading.

Table of Contents

Chapter One Art and Pleasure Hume on taste and tragedy – Collingwood on art as amusement – Mill on higher and lower pleasures – the nature of pleasure Chapter Two Art and Beauty Beauty and pleasure – Kant on beauty -- the aesthetic attitude and the sublime – art and the aesthetic -- Gadamer and art as play – art and sport – summary Chapter Three Art and Emotion Tolstoy and everyday expressivism – Aristotle and katharsis -- expression and imagination -- Croce and 'intuition' -- Collingwood's expressivism - expression versus expressiveness – summary Chapter Four Art and Understanding Hegel, art and mind – art, science and knowledge - aesthetic cognitivism, for and against - imagination and experience - the objects of imagination - art and the world - understanding as a norm – art and human nature -- summary Chapter Five Music and Sonic Art Music and pleasure - music and emotion - music as language - music and representation - musical vocabulary and musical grammar - the uniqueness of music - music and beauty - music as the exploration of sound – sonic art and digital technology – summary Chapter Six The Visual Arts What is representation? - representation and artistic value - art and the visual - visual art and the non-visual - film as art - montage versus longshot - talkies - the 'auteur' in film - summary Chapter Seven The Literary Arts Poetry and prose -- the unity of form and content - figures of speech - expressive language - poetic devices - narrative and fiction - literature and understanding - summary Chapter Eight The Performing Arts Artist, audience and performer – painting as the paradigm of art – Nietzsche and The Birth of Tragedy – performance and participation – the art of the actor -- summary Chapter Nine Architecture as an Art The peculiarities of architecture - form and function and ‘the decorated shed’ - façade, deception and the 'Zeitgeist' - functionalism - formalism and 'space' – resumé --architectural expression -- architecture