INTRODUCTION TO AESTHETICS - Softcover

Townsend, Dabney

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557867313 ISBN 13: 9781557867315

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1997

Synopsis

This volume is a fascinating introduction to the core themes and basic methods of aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Providing an analytic and historical treatment of the issues, and including many illustrative examples to both motivate and reinforce theoretical discussion, An Introduction to Aesthetics is the ideal course book for the philosophical novice. It includes an Appendix (containing the texts referred to in the book), a comprehensive Glossary and further reading suggestions to help the student reader develop a deeper comprehension of the field.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This volume is a fascinating introduction to the core themes and basic methods of aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Providing an analytic and historical treatment of the issues, and including many illustrative examples to both motivate and reinforce theoretical discussion, An Introduction to Aesthetics is the ideal course book for the philosophical novice.

Beginning with definitions of aesthetic questions and language, the author then goes on to examine relations between artist, work of art and audience, whilst throughout developing three important aesthetic theories which compete for philosophical attention: participatory aesthetics, aesthetic experience, and theory of response and institutional activity. In this way, the author encourages an understanding of aesthetic theory, whether, and to what extent, it is possible, and what the alternatives might be. The book also includes an appendix (containing the texts referred to in the book), a comprehensive glossary and further reading suggestions to help the student reader develop a deeper comprehension of the field.

About the Author:

Dabney Townsend is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Humanities at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has written extensively in the field of aesthetics, particularly on the developments in aesthetics in the eighteenth century, and has recently edited Aesthetics: Classic Readings in Western Tradition (1996).

About this edition

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1557867313
• ISBN 13: 9781557867315
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260