Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts

Last updated

Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts
LanguageEnglish
Subject Aesthetics, Theory of art, Art criticism
Publisher W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date
2011
Publication placeThe United States
ISBN 978-0-393-73349-5

Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts is an anthology of the most important texts written on aesthetics and beauty since Plato till nowadays.

It is edited by the theorist Mark Foster Gage who is tenured associate professor at the Yale University. The book is made up of twenty chapters each about an influential figure in the field of aesthetics. Also, the editor himself has added some descriptions before each chapter, summarizing how each figure's thought could be related to contemporary thinking. [1]

Summary

Covering the history of aesthetic philosophy since the ancient Greek up to 21st century, the twenty chapters includes texts from thinkers as diverse as Plato, Aristotle, Vitruvius, Alberti, Kant, Edmund Burke, Konrad Fiedler, Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, Henri Bergson, Clive Bell, Geoffrey Scott, Walter Benjamin, Georges Bataille, Susan Sontag, Frederic Jameson, Elaine Scarry, Alexander Nehamas, Nick Zangwill, and David Freedberg & Vittorio Gallese. [2]

The selection mostly focuses on the issue of the form in visual arts and tries to question the prevailing practice of only qualifying our work based on concepts and in abstract terms. [3]

In the preface of the book we read: [4]

The selections here are from philosophy, art history, literary criticism, architectural practice, Renaissance scholarship, critical theory, and the cognitive neurosciences. Some are complete book chapters or essays, and some surgically extracted excerpts from writings primarily focused on topics seemingly distant from aesthetic theory, yet all offer insights into the importance of considering form relative to its aesthetic qualities and influence.

Related Research Articles

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and the nature of taste and, in a broad sense, incorporates the philosophy of art. Aesthetics examines the philosophy of aesthetic value, which is determined by critical judgments of artistic taste; thus, the function of aesthetics is the "critical reflection on art, culture and nature".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beauty</span> Characteristic that provides pleasure or satisfaction

Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes them pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, art and taste are the main subjects of aesthetics, one of the fields of study within philosophy. As a positive aesthetic value, it is contrasted with ugliness as its negative counterpart.

The philosophy of education is the branch of applied philosophy that investigates the nature of education as well as its aims and problems. It also examines the concepts and presuppositions of education theories. It is an interdisciplinary field that draws inspiration from various disciplines both within and outside philosophy, like ethics, political philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Many of its theories focus specifically on education in schools but it also encompasses other forms of education. Its theories are often divided into descriptive theories, which provide a value-neutral description of what education is, and normative theories, which investigate how education should be practiced.

A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's goals and methods. Although the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists.

<i>The Open Society and Its Enemies</i> 1945 book by Karl Popper

The Open Society and Its Enemies is a work on political philosophy by the philosopher Karl Popper, in which the author presents a "defence of the open society against its enemies", and offers a critique of theories of teleological historicism, according to which history unfolds inexorably according to universal laws. Popper indicts Plato, Hegel, and Marx for relying on historicism to underpin their political philosophies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aesthetics of music</span> Branch of philosophy

Aesthetics of music is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of art, beauty and taste in music, and with the creation or appreciation of beauty in music. In the pre-modern tradition, the aesthetics of music or musical aesthetics explored the mathematical and cosmological dimensions of rhythmic and harmonic organization. In the eighteenth century, focus shifted to the experience of hearing music, and thus to questions about its beauty and human enjoyment of music. The origin of this philosophic shift is sometimes attributed to Baumgarten in the 18th century, followed by Kant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Ingarden</span> Polish philosopher (1893–1970)

Roman Witold Ingarden was a Polish philosopher who worked in aesthetics, ontology, and phenomenology.

This is an alphabetical index of articles about aesthetics.

This is a history of aesthetics.

Feminist philosophy is an approach to philosophy from a feminist perspective and also the employment of philosophical methods to feminist topics and questions. Feminist philosophy involves both reinterpreting philosophical texts and methods in order to supplement the feminist movement and attempts to criticise or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a feminist framework.

Richard Shusterman is an American pragmatist philosopher. Known for his contributions to philosophical aesthetics and the emerging field of somaesthetics, currently he is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Lansing Raymond</span> American philosopher (1839–1929)

George Lansing Raymond, was a prominent professor of Aesthetic Criticism at Princeton University from 1881 to 1905, and author of a new system of esthetics. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.

Applied aesthetics is the application of the branch of philosophy of aesthetics to cultural constructs. In a variety of fields, artifacts are created that have both practical functionality and aesthetic affectation. In some cases, aesthetics is primary, and in others, functionality is primary. At best, the two needs are synergistic, in which "beauty" makes an artifact work better, or in which more functional artifacts are appreciated as aesthetically pleasing. This achievement of form and function, of art and science, of beauty and usefulness, is the primary goal of design, in all of its domains.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to aesthetics:

A theory of art is intended to contrast with a definition of art. Traditionally, definitions are composed of necessary and sufficient conditions, and a single counterexample overthrows such a definition. Theorizing about art, on the other hand, is analogous to a theory of a natural phenomenon like gravity. In fact, the intent behind a theory of art is to treat art as a natural phenomenon that should be investigated like any other. The question of whether one can speak of a theory of art without employing a concept of art is also discussed below.

Philosophy of architecture is a branch of philosophy of art, dealing with the aesthetic value of architecture, its semantics and relations with the development of culture.

Mark Foster Gage is an American designer, theorist, writer and founder of Mark Foster Gage Architects in New York City. He is a tenured Associate Professor and former Assistant Dean at the Yale University School of Architecture where he has been on the faculty since 2001. His academic expertise at Yale is in the field of aesthetic philosophy. He has also been a design contributor for CNN. In 2022 he created the Mark Foster Gage Foundation, a private charitable organization that funds efforts to improve the built environment through supporting innovative architectural research, education, publications, and projects. 

Medieval aesthetics refers to the general philosophy of beauty during the Medieval period. Although Aesthetics did not exist as a field of study during the Middle Ages, influential thinkers active during the period did discuss the nature of beauty and thus an understanding of medieval aesthetics can be obtained from their writings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metaphysical aesthetics</span>

Metaphysical concepts relate to the ideas of transcendent and universal elements that surpass the human interactions. They aim to explore notions that humans have yet to comprehend, or have merely touched on in order to provide an understanding of what lies beyond the physical world. Aesthetics aims to explore questions relating to the natural world, beauty and art, and the intertwining of each. Therefore, in conjunction with metaphysical concepts, these two branches of philosophy explore the transformative and distinctiveness of art and what distinguishes something as art. These ideas highly conflicted with modern scientific knowledge as they were based on theories and concepts in comparison to reliable experiments that resulted in tangible or viewable proof. In relation to naturalism many philosophers such as John Dewey, Ernest Nagel and Sidney Hook are compelled to believe that only what is seen and touched or scientifically proven can be true, and in saying so, can be meaningful to humans.

Absolutism, in aesthetics, is a term applied to several theories of aesthetics with the same inherent approach. This being that beauty is an objective attribute of things, and not merely a subjective feeling of pleasure to the one who perceives it. It follows from this that there is an absolute standard of the beautiful by which all objects can be judged. The fact that, in practice, the judgments even of connoisseurs are perpetually at variance, and that the so-called criteria of one place or period are more or less opposed to those of all others, is explained by the hypothesis that individuals are differently gifted in respect of the capacity to appreciate.

References

  1. "Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts for Architecture and Design / Mark Foster Gage". ArchDaily. March 23, 2012.
  2. "Wiley". www.wiley.com.
  3. Steve Kroeter (April 26, 2012). "Author Q&A with Mark Foster Gage: Aesthetic Theory". Designers & Books. Archived from the original on May 2, 2021.
  4. Foster Gage, Mark, 2011, Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts, W. W. Norton & Company, p 9.