Philosophy: aesthetics

The diversity of Nietzsche's books, and the sheer range of his philosophical interests, have posed daunting challenges to his interpreters.

According to the literary humanist, works of imaginative literature have an objective meaning which is fixed at the time of their production and which is the same for all readers, then and thereafter, not subject to the vagaries of individual readers' responses.

Inspired by the ecosophical writings of Felix Guattari, this book explores the many ways that aesthetics – in the forms of visual art, film, sculpture, painting, literature, and the screenplay – can act as catalysts, allowing us to see the world differently, beyond traditional modes of representation.

Ideas About Art is an intelligent, accessible introductory text for students interested in learning how to think about aesthetics.

This title was first published in 28/11/2001: The broad label 'practical philosophy' brings together such topics as ethics and metaethics as well as philosophy of law, society, art and religion.

An important new examination of Islamic themes in the art of Albrecht DurerAlbrecht Durer's depictions of Muslim figures and subjects are considered by many to be among his most perplexing images.

Theodor Adorno (1903-69) was undoubtedly the foremost thinker of the Frankfurt School, the influential group of German thinkers that fled to the US in the 1930s, including such thinkers as Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer.

A rigorous new thinking of the photograph in its relation to science, philosophy, and art, so as to discover an essence of photography that precedes its historical, technological, and aesthetic conditions.

The Critical Imagination is a study of metaphor, imaginativeness, and criticism of the arts.

Arguing that we ought to look to psychedelic aesthetics of the 1960s in relation to current crises in liberal democracy, this book emphasizes the intersection of European thought and the psychedelic.

This book explores the cultural, intellectual, and artistic fascination with camera-eye metaphors in film culture of the twentieth century.

Staging Voice is a unique approach to the aesthetics of voice and its staging in performance.

This is the first book to present an aesthetics of virtual reality media.

This volume offers a fresh view of the work of Thomas Reid, a leading figure in the history of eighteenth-century philosophy.

A clear and compact survey of philosophical theories of the nature and value of art, in a new, expanded edition.

This book presents an original worldview, Homo risibilis, wherein self-referential humor is proposed as the path leading from a tragic view of life to a liberating embrace of human ridicule.

A detailed and inventive study of the thinking at work in modern painting, drawing on a formidable body of scholarly evidence to challenge modernist and phenomenological readings of art history, The Brain-Eye presents a series of interlinked ';case studies' in which philosophical thought encounters the hallucinatory sensations unleashed by ';painter-researchers.

This book offers a unique interpretation of tragic literature in the Western tradition, deploying the method and style of Analytic philosophy.

By analysing the philosophical lineage of notions of representation, time, being, light, exposure, image, and truth, this book argues that photography is the visual manifestation of the philosophical account of how humans encounter beings in the present.

Jean-Fran ois Lyotard (1924-1998) was one of the previous century's most provocative thinkers.

Reading Architecture with Freud and Lacan: Shadowing the Public Realm methodically outlines key concepts in psychoanalytic discourse by reading them against key modern and post-modern architects.

A philosophical exploration of aesthetic experience during bereavement.

Blanchot's writings on literature have imposed themselves in the canon of modern literary theory and yet have remained a mysterious presence.

This book develops a theory of picture perception and aesthetic response, arguing that images can generate in us a complex pattern of mental changes, or transformations.

What does a place sound like - and how does the sound of place affect our perceptions, experiences, and memories?

This book addresses a prominent group of virtues and vices as portrayed in popular films to further our understanding of these moral character traits.

A thematic exploration of Schubert''s style, applied in readings of his instrumental and vocal literature by international scholars.

Rom Harre's career spans more than 40 years of original contributions to the development of both psychology and other human and social sciences.

Originally published in 1998, Easels of Utopia presents a discussion of art's duration and contingency within the avant garde's aesthetic parameters, which throughout this century have constructed, influenced, and informed our definitions of modernity.

In De Gustibus Peter Kivy deals with a question that has never been fully addressed by philosophers of art: why do we argue about art?

One of the most significant occurrences in the history of design was the creation of the English Landscape Garden.

This much acclaimed book has emerged as neo-pragmatism's most significant contribution to contemporary aesthetics.

For anyone working in aesthetics interested in understanding the richness of the Chinese aesthetic tradition this handbook is the place to start.

This book posits an interconnection between the ways in which contemporary television serials cue cognitive operations, solicit emotional responses, and elicit aesthetic appreciation.

Aesthetics: The Key Thinkers offers a comprehensive historical overview of the field of aesthetics.

This book explores the role atmospheres play in shared emotion.

During the last few decades, most cultural critics have come to agree that the division between "e;high"e; and "e;low"e; art is an artificial one, that Beethoven's Ninth and "e;Blue Suede Shoes"e; are equally valuable as cultural texts.

Beloved by film and art aficionados and fans of neo-noir cinema, Mulholland Drive is one of the most important and enigmatic films of recent years.

At stake in this book is a struggle with language in a time when our old faith in the redeeming of the word-and the word's power to redeem-has almost been destroyed.

Margaret Boden presents a series of essays in which she explores the nature of creativity in a wide range of art forms.

This book reveals a new history of the imagination told through its engagement with the body.

Through the concept of "e;social choreography"e; Andrew Hewitt demonstrates how choreography has served not only as metaphor for modernity but also as a structuring blueprint for thinking about and shaping modern social organization.

This book challenges the dominant expertise professionalism rationale for music education by responding to the call to develop 'ecological awareness' at a time when all professions have a moral obligation to place sustainable and interdependent life at the center.

This book traces the intersection of dreams and power in order to analyze the complex ways representations of dreams and paradigms of dream interpretation reinforce and challenge authoritarian, hierarchical structures.