Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art

For over fifty years, philosophers working within the broader remit of analytic philosophy have developed and refined a substantial body of work in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, curating a core foundation of scholarship which offers rigor and clarity on matters of profound and perennial interest relating to art and all forms of aesthetic appreciation. Now in its second edition and thoroughly revised, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art—The Analytic Tradition: An Anthology captures this legacy in a comprehensive introduction to the core philosophical questions and conversations in aesthetics.

Through 57 key essays selected by leading scholars Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen, this anthology collects modern classics as well as new contributions on essential topics such as the identification and ontology of art, interpretation, values of art, art and knowledge, and fiction and the imagination. New to this edition are selections which treat aesthetic experience more widely, including essays on the aesthetics of nature and aesthetics in everyday life. Other carefully-chosen pieces analyze the practice and experience of specific art forms in greater detail, including painting, photography, film, literature, music, and popular art such as comics.

This bestselling collection is an essential resource for students and scholars of aesthetics, designed to foster a foundational understanding of both long-standing and contemporary topics in the field.

Acknowledgments x

Extracts from the General Introduction to the First Edition (2004) xiii

General Introduction to the Second Edition xvii

Part I Identifying Art 1

Introduction 3

1 The Artworld 7
Arthur C. Danto

2 The New Institutional Theory of Art 15
George Dickie

3 An Aesthetic Definition of Art 22
Monroe C. Beardsley

4 “But They Don’t Have Our Concept of Art” 30
Denis Dutton

5 Nobody Needs a Theory of Art 43
Dominic McIver Lopes

6 Art: What it Is and Why it Matters 54
Catharine Abell

Part II Ontology of Art 67

Introduction 69

7 What a Musical Work Is 71
Jerrold Levinson

8 Defending Musical Platonism 84
Julian Dodd

9 Against Musical Ontology 98
Aaron Ridley

10 The Ontology of Art and Knowledge in Aesthetics 108
Amie L. Thomasson

Part III Aesthetic Properties and Aesthetic Experience 117

Introduction 119

11 Aesthetic Concepts 121
Frank Sibley

12 Categories of Art 134
Kendall L. Walton

13 In Defence of Moderate Aesthetic Formalism 149
Nick Zangwill

14 How to Be a Pessimist about Aesthetic Testimony 159
Robert Hopkins

15 Recent Approaches to Aesthetic Experience 170
Noël Carroll

Part IV Intention and Interpretation 183

Introduction 185

16 Intentions and Interpretations: A Fallacy Revived 187
Monroe C. Beardsley

17 The Literary Work as a Pliable Entity: Combining Realism and Pluralism 197
Torsten Pettersson

18 Authors’ Intentions, Literary Interpretation, and Literary Value 208
Stephen Davies

Part V Values of Art 223

Introduction 225

19 Originals, Copies, and Aesthetic Value 229
Jack W. Meiland

20 Artistic Value 236
Malcolm Budd

21 The Ethical Criticism of Art 247
Berys Gaut

22 Artistic Value and Opportunistic Moralism 258
Eileen John

23 What’s Wrong with the (Female) Nude? A Feminist Perspective on Art and Pornography 266
A.W. Eaton

Part VI Art and Knowledge 283

Introduction 285

24 On the Cognitive Triviality of Art 289
Jerome Stolnitz

25 Art and Moral Knowledge 295
Cynthia A. Freeland

26 Reading Fiction and Conceptual Knowledge: Philosophical Thought in Literary Context 310
Eileen John

27 Cognitive Values in the Arts: Marking the Boundaries 326
Peter Lamarque

Part VII Fictionality and Imagination 337

Introduction 339

28 Fearing Fictions 343
Kendall L. Walton

29 The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse 355
John Searle

30 The Expression of Feeling in Imagination 363
Richard Moran

31 The Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance 378
Tamar Szabó Gendler

32 Anne Brontë and the Uses of Imagination 393
Gregory Currie

33 Fiction as a Genre 402
Stacie Friend

Part VIII Pictorial Art 417

Introduction 419

34 On Pictorial Representation 421
Richard Wollheim

35 Pictorial Realism 431
Catharine Abell

36 Telling Pictures: The Place of Narrative in Late Modern ‘Visual Art’ 441
David Davies

Part IX Photography and Film 451

Introduction 453

37 Photography and Representation 457
Roger Scruton

38 Photography and Causation: Responding to Scruton’s Scepticism 472
Dawn M. Phillips

39 Cinematic Art 483
Berys Gaut

40 Theses on Cinema as Philosophy 496
Paisley Livingston

41 Narration in Motion 503
Katherine J. Thomson‐Jones

Part X Literature 511

Introduction 513

42 Style and Personality in the Literary Work 517
Jenefer M. Robinson

43 Literary Aesthetics and Literary Practice 527
Stein Haugom Olsen

44 Fictional Characters and Literary Practices 537
Amie L. Thomasson

45 The Elusiveness of Poetic Meaning 549
Peter Lamarque

Part XI Music 561

Introduction 563

46 The Profundity of Music 567
Peter Kivy

47 Against Emotion: Hanslick Was Right about Music 574
Nick Zangwill

48 Listening with Emotion: How Our Emotions Help Us to Understand Music 583
Jenefer Robinson

Part XII Popular Arts 601

Introduction 603

49 Defining Mass Art 607
Noël Carroll

50 Just a Song? Exploring the Aesthetics of Popular Song Performance 623
Jeanette Bicknell

51 Comics as Literature? 632
Aaron Meskin

52 The Vice of Snobbery: Aesthetic Knowledge, Justification and Virtue in Art Appreciation 647
Matthew Kieran

Part XIII Aesthetics of Nature and Everyday Aesthetics 659

Introduction 661

53 Appreciation and the Natural Environment 665
Allen Carlson

54 Scientific Knowledge and the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature 673
Patricia Matthews

55 Aesthetic Character and Aesthetic Integrity in Environmental Conservation 684
Emily Brady

56 Everyday Aesthetics 695
Yuriko Saito

57 The Pervasiveness of the Aesthetic in Ordinary Experience 700
Sherri Irvin

Index 710

PETER LAMARQUE is Professor of Philosophy at the University of York and was formerly editor of the British Journal of Aesthetics. His books include Fictional Points of View (1996), The Philosophy of Literature (2008), Work and Object: Explorations in the Metaphysics of Art (2010), and The Opacity of Narrative (2014).

STEIN HAUGOM OLSEN is Professor of British Literature and Head of the Department of English Language and Literature at Bilkent University, Ankara. He was formerly the Pro-Rector of Østfold University College, Norway, and has held chairs in English, comparative literature, and philosophy at the universities of Oslo and Bergen and at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. His books include The Structure of Literary Understanding (1978), The End of Literary Theory (1987), and Truth, Fiction, and Literature (1994) (with Peter Lamarque).

Praise for the First Edition

"A sparkling compilation of essential readings, balancing classics in analytic aesthetics with recent developments, all skilfully arranged to capture every reader's interests. An incomparable achievement." Dominic McIver Lopes, University of British Columbia

"[T]hey have done a superb job of compiling the key texts in contemporary analytic aesthetics in a volume that is sure to remain the standard reader for a long time to come." Anna Christina Ribeiro, Texas Tech University

"To my knowledge, Lamarque and Olsen's anthology is the most comprehensive and judiciously put-together collection of its kind to date. It includes all of the authors one can think of on anyone's list of the major contributors to the late twentieth-century analytic tradition in aesthetics and philosophy of art. It is both deep and broad. If you are going to a desert island, and baggage space is limited, this is definitely the collection on the subject you want to take with you." Peter Kivy

For over fifty years, philosophers working within the broader remit of analytic philosophy have developed and refined a substantial body of work in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, securing a core foundation of scholarship which offers rigor and clarity on matters of profound and perennial interest relating to art and all forms of aesthetic appreciation. Now in its second edition and thoroughly revised, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art—The Analytic Tradition: An Anthology captures this legacy in a comprehensive introduction to the core philosophical questions and conversations in aesthetics.

Through 57 key essays selected by leading scholars Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen, this anthology collects modern classics as well as new contributions on essential topics such as the identification and ontology of art, interpretation, values of art, art and knowledge, fiction and the imagination, and the aesthetics of nature. New to this edition are selections which treat aesthetic experience more widely, including essays on aesthetic testimony, imaginative resistance, and aesthetics in everyday life. Other carefully-chosen pieces analyze in detail the practice and experience of specific art forms, including painting, photography, film, literature, music, and popular art such as comics.

This bestselling collection is an essential resource for students and scholars of aesthetics, designed to foster a foundational understanding of both well-established and contemporary debates in the field.