Category Archives: Aesthetics

The Concept of Passivity in Husserl’s Phenomenology (Contributions To Phenomenology)

In Chapter 1, I explain why temporal syntheses, although distinguished from associative syntheses, count among the most fundamental phenomena of the passive sphere. I draw on Husserl’s account of absolute consciousness, which ‘sublates’ pairs of opposites such as form/content and … Continue reading

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Diotima’s Children: German Aesthetic Rationalism from Leibniz to Lessing

Diotima’s Children is a re-examination of the rationalist tradition of aesthetics which prevailed in Germany in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century. It is partly an historical survey of the central figures and themes of this tradition But it is … Continue reading

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Functional Beauty

Glenn Parsons and Allen Carlson offer an in-depth philosophical study of the relationship between function and aesthetic value, breaking with the philosophical tradition of seeing the two as separate. They begin by developing and defending, in a general way, the … Continue reading

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A Companion to Aesthetics (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy)

In this extensively revised and updated edition, 168 alphabetically arranged articles provide comprehensive treatment of the main topics and writers in this area of aesthetics. Written by prominent scholars covering a wide-range of key topics in aesthetics and the philosophy … Continue reading

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Antithetical Arts: On the Ancient Quarrel Between Literature and Music

Antithetical Arts constitutes a defence of musical formalism against those who would put literary interpretations on the absolute music canon. In Part I, the historical origins of both the literary interpretation of absolute music and musical formalism are laid out. … Continue reading

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Art Matters: A Critical Commentary on Heideggers The Origin of the Work of Art (Contributions To Phenomenology)

In recent years there has been a great deal of talk about a possible death of art. As the title of Heidegger’s “The Origin of the Work of Art” suggests, the essay challenges such talk, just as it in turn … Continue reading

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The Philosophy of Improvisation

Improvisation is usually either lionized as an ecstatic experience of being in the moment or disparaged as the thoughtless recycling of clichés. Eschewing both of these orthodoxies, The Philosophy of Improvisation ranges across the arts—from music to theater, dance to … Continue reading

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Describing Ourselves: Wittgenstein and Autobiographical Consciousness

The voluminous writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein contain some of the most profound reflections of recent times on the nature of the human subject and self-understanding – the human condition, philosophically speaking. Describing Ourselves mines those extensive writings for a conception … Continue reading

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Body Consciousness: A Philosophy of Mindfulness and Somaesthetics

Contemporary culture increasingly suffers from problems of attention, over-stimulation, and stress, and a variety of personal and social discontents generated by deceptive body images. This book argues that improved body consciousness can relieve these problems and enhance one’s knowledge, performance, … Continue reading

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Fiction and the Weave of Life

Literary fiction is of crucial importance in human life. It is a source of understanding and insight into the nature of the human condition, yet ever since Plato, philosophers have struggled to provide a plausible explanation of how this can … Continue reading

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