Table Of ContentAesthetics:
The Key Thinkers
Continuum Key Thinkers
The Key Thinkers series is aimed at undergraduate students and offers
clear, concise and accessible edited guides to the key thinkers in each
of the central topics in philosophy. Each book offers a comprehensive
overview of the major thinkers who have contributed to the historical
development of a key area of philosophy, providing a survey of their
major works and the evolution of the central ideas in that area.
Key Thinkers in Philosophy available now from Continuum:
Epistemology , edited by Stephen Hetherington
Ethics , edited by Tom Angier
Philosophy of Language , edited by Barry Lee
Philosophy of Religion , edited by Jeffrey J. Jordan
Philosophy of Science , edited by James Robert Brown
Aesthetics:
The Key Thinkers
Edited by
Alessandro Giovannelli
Continuum International Publishing Group
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane
11 York Road Suite 704
London SE1 7NX New York NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
© Alessandro Giovannelli and Contributors 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing- in-P ublication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
EISBN: 978- 1- 4411-8027-8
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Aesthetics : the key thinkers / [edited by] Alessandro Giovannelli.
p. cm. – (Key thinkers)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-9878-5 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-1-4411-8777-2 (pbk.) –
ISBN 978-1-4411-4154-5 (ePub) – ISBN 978-1-4411-8027-8 (PDF) 1. Aesthetics–
History–Sources. I. Giovannelli, Alessandro. II. Title. III. Series.
BH81.A39 2011
111’.8509–dc23
2011028614
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in India
Contents
Notes on Contributors v ii
Introduction 1
Alessandro Giovannelli
1. Plato 8
Robert Stecker
2. Aristotle 21
Angela Curran
3. Medieval Aesthetics 3 4
Gian Carlo Garfagnini
4. David Hume 4 8
Alan H. Goldman
5. Immanuel Kant 61
Elisabeth Schellekens
6. G. W. F. Hegel 75
Richard Eldridge
7. Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche 8 6
Scott Jenkins
8. Benedetto Croce and Robin G. Collingwood 100
Gary Kemp
9. Roger Fry and Clive Bell 113
Susan Feagin
vi Contents
10. John Dewey 126
Thomas Leddy
11. Martin Heidegger 139
Joseph Shieber
12. Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno 1 46
Gerhard Richter
13. Monroe Beardsley 160
Noël Carroll
14. Nelson Goodman 166
Alessandro Giovannelli
15. Richard A. Wollheim 181
Malcolm Budd
16. Arthur C. Danto 189
Sondra Bacharach
17. Kendall L. Walton 197
David Davies
18. Some Contemporary Developments 207
Alessandro Giovannelli
Index 2 31
Notes on Contributors
Sondra B acharach is Senior Lecturer of Philosophy at Victoria University
of Wellington (New Zealand). She has published articles and book chap-
ters on collaborative artistic authorship, the role of historical context in
art interpretation and individuation, and philosophy in film.
Malcolm Budd is Emeritus Grote Professor of Philosophy of Mind and
Logic at University College London (UK), Fellow of the British Academy,
and President of the British Society of Aesthetics. His most recent books
are T he Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature and A esthetic Essays .
Noël C arroll i s Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate
Center of the City University of New York (USA), and past President of
the American Society for Aesthetics. His long list of books and articles
includes his most recent A rt in Three Dimensions .
Angela Curran is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Carleton College
(USA). She has coedited T he Philosophy of Film: Introductory Text and
Readings and is currently working on t he Routledge Guidebook to
Aristotle and the Poetics.
David D avies i s Professor of Philosophy at McGill University (Canada).
He has published widely in aesthetics, especially on issues in philosophy
of film, photography, literature, and the visual arts. He is the author of
Art as Performance , Aesthetics and Literature , and P hilosophy of the
Performing Arts .
Richard E ldridge is Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor of
Philosophy at Swarthmore College (USA). His most recent books are
Literature, Life, and Modernity and the coedited collection Stanley Cavell
and Literary Criticism: Consequences of Skepticism (Continuum).
viii Contributors
Susan Feagin is Research Professor of Philosophy at Temple University
(USA) and Editor of the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism . She has
published many journal articles and book chapters, and is the author of
Reading with Feeling: The Aesthetics of Appreciation .
Gian Carlo G arfagnini is Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the University
of Florence (Italy) and Vice- President of the Italian Dante Society. He has
authored numerous articles, focusing especially on the relationship between
ethics and politics between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries.
Alessandro G iovannelli i s Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Lafayette
College (USA). He has published articles and book chapters on the imagi-
native engagement with characters, art and ethics, and the philosophy
of film and literature.
Alan H. Goldman is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities and
Professor of Philosophy at the College of William and Mary (USA). His most
recent books are: Aesthetic Value ; Practical Rules: When We Need Them
and When We Don’t ; and R easons from Within: Desires and Values .
Scott J enkins i s Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Kansas (USA). His major research interests are Kant, German Idealism,
and Nietzsche, on all of which he has published several articles.
Gary K emp is Senior Lecturer of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow
(UK). He mainly works in philosophy of logic and language but has a
serious interest in aesthetics. His latest book is the forthcoming Quine
versus Davidson: Truth, Reference and Meaning .
Thomas L eddy i s Professor of Philosophy at San José State University
(USA). He is the author of many articles and contributions, focusing on
art interpretation, creativity, the aesthetics of architecture, pragmatist
aesthetics, and the aesthetics of the everyday.
Gerhard Richter is Professor of German and Comparative Literature at
Brown University (USA). His most recent book, titled Afterness: Figures
of Following in Modern Thought and Aesthetics , is forthcoming.
Elisabeth Schellekens is Senior Lecturer at the University of Durham
(UK) and Associate Editor of the British Journal of Aesthetics . She has
published her A esthetics and Morality with Continuum and is coauthor
(with Peter Goldie) of W ho’s Afraid of Conceptual Art .
Contributors ix
Joseph Shieber is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Lafayette
College (USA). He has published articles and book chapters in episte-
mology, philosophy of language, the history of modern philosophy, and
the history of twentieth-c entury analytic philosophy.
Robert Stecker is Professor of Philosophy at Central Michigan University
(USA). His numerous publications include the books: A rtworks: Definition,
Meaning, Value ; I nterpretation and Construction: Art, Speech, and the
Law ; and A esthetics and Philosophy of Art .
