Home / Humanities / Philosophy / Aesthetics

Aesthetics: A Comprehensive
Anthology
Steven M. Cahn (Editor), Aaron Meskin (Editor)
ISBN: 978-1-4051-5434-5
704 pages
October 2007, Wiley-Blackwell

Description
The appreciation of art and the pursuit of beauty are fundamental elements of human life, and for almost as long as
we have engaged in philosophical inquiry we have been theorizing about aesthetic matters. Covering nearly 2,500
years of theory and analysis, this anthology offers the most comprehensive collection of readings on aesthetics and
philosophy of art currently available. From Plato's Ion to work by contemporary philosophers of art, Aesthetics: A
Comprehensive Anthology showcases classic texts that speak for themselves in showing the development of
philosophical thought about art and the aesthetic. Thorough, systematic, and flexible, this volume is an ideal guide to
the field and makes an excellent textbook for a variety of courses in philosophical aesthetics.

Table of Contents
Aesthetics: Classic and Contemporary Readings.

Edited by Cahn and Meskin.

Preface.
Part I: Historical Sources.
1. The Modern System of the Arts: Paul Oskar Kristeller.
2. Ion: Plato.
3. The Republic: Plato.
4. Symposium: Plato.
5. Poetics: Aristotle.

6. Ennead I, vi: Plotinus.

7. Of Music: St. Augustine.

8. On the Reduction of the Arts to Theology: St. Bonaventure.
9. Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times: Third Earl of Shaftesbury.
10. Inquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue: Francis Hutcheson.
11. Of the Standard of Taste: David Hume.
12. Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and the Beautiful: Sir Edmund Burke.
13. Laocoon: Gotthold Lesing.
14. Critique of Judgment: Immanuel Kant.
Part II: Modern Theories.
15. Introduction to Modern Theories: Christopher Janaway.
16. Letter of an Aesthetic Education of Man: Friedrich Schiller.
17. Philosophy of Art: Friedrich J.W. Schelling.
18. The Philosophy of Fine Art: Georg W.F. Hegel.
19. The World as Will and Representation: Arthur Schopenhauer.
20. The Beautiful in Music: Eduard Hanslick.
21. The Birth of Tragedy: Friedrich Nietzsche.
22. What is Art?: Leo Tolstoy.
23. 'Psychical Distance' as a Factor in Art and as an Aesthetic Principle: Edward Bullough.
24. Art: Clive Bell.
25. Aesthetics: Benedetto Croce.
26. The Principles of Art: R.G. Collingwood.
27. Art as Experience: John Dewey.
28. Feeling and Form: Susanne Langer.
29. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Walter Benjamin.
30. The Origin of the Work of Art: Martin Heidegger.
31. Aesthetic Theory: Theodor Adorno.

32. Truth and Method: Hans-Georg Gadamer.

Part III: Contemporary Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art.
33. Introduction to Contemporary Aesthetics: Susan Feagin and Aaron Meskin.
34. Aesthetic Problems of Modern Philosophy: Stanley Cavell.
35. The Role of Theory in Aesthetics: Morris Weitz.
36. The Artworld: Arthur Danto.
37. What is Art? An Institutional Analysis: George Dickie.
38. When is Art?: Nelson Goodman.
39. Identifying Art: Noel Carroll.
40. The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude: George Dickie.
41. Art and its Objects: Richard Wollheim.
42. What a Musical Work Is: Jerrold Levinson.
43. Aesthetic Concepts: Frank Sibley.
44. Beauty Restored: May Mothersill.
45. Categories of Art: Kendall Walton.
46. Appreciation and the Natural Environment: Allen Carlson.
47. The Intentional Fallacy: W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley.
48. The Postulated Author: Critical Monism as a Regulative Ideal: Alexander Nehamas.
49. Art Intention and Conversation: Noel Carroll.
50. The Ethical Criticism of Art: Berys Gaut.
51. Expressive Properties of Art: Guy Sircello.
52. Style and Personality in the Literary Work: Jenefer Robinson.
53. Emotions in the Music: Peter Kivy.
54. Fearing Fictions: Kendall Walton.
55. Oppressive Texts, Resisting Readers and the Gendered Spectator: Mary Deveraux

See Less

Author Information
Steven M. Cahn is Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the

author of nine books, including Fate, Logic, and Time, Saints and Scamps: Ethics in Academia, revised edition, Puzzles and
Perplexities, second edition, and God, Reason, and Religion. He has also edited or co-edited some thirty volumes,
including Classics of Western Philosophy, now in its seventh edition.
Aaron Meskin is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Leeds. His publications on aesthetics have appeared in
the British Journal of Aesthetics, the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research and
a number of anthologies. He is also aesthetics editor for the online journal Philosophy Compass (Wiley-Blackwell).

The Wiley Advantage

Brings together the most significant writings in aesthetics and philosophy of art from the past 2500 years
Each section includes a useful introductory essay which provides an overview of developments in the field
Broken down into three sections: Historical Sources, Modern Theories, and Contemporary Aesthetics and
Philosophy of Art
Thorough, systematic, and flexible, including two alternative tables of contents (historical and topical); an ideal
textbook and guide to the field

Reviews
Steven Cahn and Aaron Meskin have put together an unrivalled collection of great work in philosophical aesthetics,
encompassing historical sources ranging from Plato to Shaftesbury, modern theories from Schiller to Gadamer, and
more recent work covering all the central areas in contemporary aesthetics and philosophy of art. I thoroughly
recommend it.
Peter Goldie, University of Manchester<!--end-->
The go-to book for classics in aesthetics from Plato and Aristotle to Adorno and Walton. Balanced and
comprehensive, each chapter selected with a keen eye for bringing out enduring themes, this volume is a landmark
achievement.
Dominic McIver Lopes, University of British Columbia

Related Titles

Contemporary Moral
and Social Issues: An
Introduction through
Original Fiction,
Discussion, and
Readings
by Thomas D. Davis
(Original Author)

Ethics in Practice: An
Anthology, 4th Edition
by Hugh LaFollette
(Editor)

Philosophy of
Technology: The
Technological Condition:
An Anthology, 2nd
Edition
by Robert C. Scharff
(Editor), Val Dusek
(Editor)

Metaphysics and
Epistemology: A Guided
Anthology
by Stephen Hetherington
(Editor)

More in this series

Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies Series

Copyright 2000-2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., or related companies. All rights reserved.