Aesthetic Concepts


Book Description

Aesthetic Concepts is an exploration of key topics in contemporary aesthetics that arise from the seminal work of Frank Sibley (1923-1996). Sibley developed a distinctive aesthetic theory through a number of papers published between 1955 and 1995 (a selection of which, entitled Approach toAesthetics, is also published by OUP). Sibley's theory is grounded in the important and influential distinction he made between aesthetic and non-aesthetic concepts in his ground-breaking paper, 'Aesthetic Concepts'. Thirteen specially written essays by British and American philosophical aestheticians bring Sibley's insight into a contemporary framework, exploring the ways his ideas give rise to important new discussion about issues in aesthetics that greatly interested him. These include: the differences andrelationships between aesthetic concepts and other types of concepts, aesthetic realism and objectivity, methods of aesthetic evaluation in practice and in theory, the boundaries of aesthetics, and aesthetics of nature versus aesthetics of art. This collection will be of interest to scholars inphilosophy, art theory, and art criticism.




Border Aesthetics


Book Description

Few concepts are as central to understanding the modern world as borders, and the now-thriving field of border studies has already produced a substantial literature analyzing their legal, ideological, geographical, and historical aspects. Such studies have hardly exhausted the subject’s conceptual fertility, however, as this pioneering collection on the aesthetics of borders demonstrates. Organized around six key ideas—ecology, imaginary, in/visibility, palimpsest, sovereignty and waiting—the interlocking essays collected here provide theoretical starting points for an aesthetic understanding of borders, developed in detail through interdisciplinary analyses of literature, audio-visual borderscapes, historical and contemporary ecologies, political culture, and migration.




Facial Aesthetics


Book Description

Facial Aesthetics: Concepts and Clinical Diagnosis is a unique new illustrated resource for facial aesthetic surgery and dentistry, providing the comprehensive clinical textbook on the art and science of facial aesthetics for clinicians involved in the management of facial deformities, including orthodontists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, plastic and reconstructive surgeons and aesthetic dentists. It aims to provide readers with a comprehensive examination of facial aesthetics in the context of dentofacial and craniofacial diagnosis and treatment planning. This aim is achieved through coupling meticulous research and practical clinical advice with beautifully drawn supporting illustrations and diagrams. Structured over 24 logically arranged and easy-to-follow chapters, Part I of Facial Aesthetics covers the historical evidence for facial aesthetic canons and concepts in depth. It incorporates all aspects relevant to the work of the clinician, including the philosophical and scientific theories of facial beauty, facial attractiveness research, facial expression and the psychosocial ramifications of facial deformities. Part II of the book then goes on to examine clinical evaluation and diagnosis in considerable detail under four sections, from the initial consultation interview and acquisition of diagnostic records (section 1), complete clinical examination and analysis of the craniofacial complex (section 2), in depth analysis of each individual facial region using a top-down approach (section 3) and finally focussing on smile and dentogingival aesthetic evaluation (section 4). An in-depth, thoughtful, practical and absorbing reference, Facial Aesthetics will find an enthusiastic reception among facial aesthetic surgeons and aesthetic dentists with an interest in refining their understanding and appreciation of the human face and applying practical protocols to their clinical diagnosis and treatment planning. Key features: Examines facial aesthetics in a clinical context Promotes an interdisciplinary approach to facial aesthetic analysis Detailed description of the systematic clinical evaluation of the facial soft tissues and craniodentoskeletal complex Detailed, step-by-step aesthetic analysis of each facial region In-depth analysis of 2D and 3D clinical diagnostic records Evidence-based approach, from antiquity to contemporary scientific evidence, to the guidelines employed in planning the correction of facial deformities Treatment planning from first principles highlighted Clinical notes are highlighted throughout Clearly organized and practical format Highly illustrated in full colour throughout




Aesthetics: Key Concepts in Philosophy


Book Description

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophical thought that arises from deep engagement with the arts. It is about larger issues such as meaning, identity, and medium that arise in the exploration of art, music, film and literature. Aesthetics: Key Concepts in Philosophy offers a thorough, lucid and stimulating account of the central theories and ideas encountered in aesthetics. The text is thematically structured, covering the discipline's principal concepts: taste, aesthetic judgment, aesthetic experience, and the definition of art. It includes an overview of the history of aesthetics and guides the reader through the work of all major philosophers who have engaged with aesthetics.




Musical Aesthetics


Book Description

This book contains six chapters covering key areas of musical aesthetics, including aesthetics of emotions; aesthetics of listening; aesthetics of performance; aesthetics of composition; aesthetics of nature; and aesthetics of commerce. Each chapter adopts an experiential approach to aesthetics, in which perceptual and intuitive musical responses – real-time experiences – are valued as a source of truth. Unlike intellectual aesthetics, which values conscious associations and meticulous artistic appraisals, experiential aesthetics looks primarily at everyday subconscious appreciations. The explorations here draw from the social sciences, hard sciences, philosophy, literature, theology, musicology, humanities, and other fields that directly or indirectly contribute to an understanding of our attraction to music. Presenting user-friendly distillations of numerous theories, concepts, and functions, this book will be of interest to both lay readers and expert practitioners.




A History of Six Ideas


Book Description

The history of aesthetics, like the histories of other sciences, may be treated in a two-fold manner: as the history of the men who created the field of study, or as the history of the questions that have been raised and resolved in the course of its pursuit. The earlier History of Aesthetics (3 volumes, 1960-68, English-language edition 1970-74) by the author of the present book was a history of men, of writers and artists who in centuries past have spoken up concerning beauty and art, form and crea tivity. The present book returns to the same subject, but treats it in a different way: as the history of aesthetic questions, concepts, theories. The matter of the two books, the previous and the present, is in part the same; but only in part: for the earlier book ended with the 17th century, while the present one brings the subject up to our own times. And from the 18th century to the 20th much happened in aesthetics; it was only in that period that aesthetics achieved recognition as a separate science, received a name of its own, and produced theories that early scholars and artists had never dreamed of.




Process and Aesthetics


Book Description

While Alfred North Whitehead did not dedicate any books or articles to aesthetics specifically, aesthetic motifs permeate his entire philosophical opus. Despite this, aestheticians have devoted little attention to Whitehead; most attempts to reconstruct Whitehead’s aesthetics have come from process philosophers, and even in that context aesthetics has never occupied a central position. In this book, four scholars of aesthetics provide another angle from which Whiteheadian aesthetics might be reconstructed. Paying special attention to the notion of aesthetic experience, the authors analyze abstraction versus concreteness, immediacy vs. mediation, and aesthetic contextualism vs. aesthetic isolationism. For their interpretation of Whiteheadian aesthetics, the concepts of creativity and rhythm are crucial. Using these concepts, the book interprets the motif of the processes by which experience is harmonized, the sensation of the quality of the whole, and directedness towards novelty. The first chapter introduces Whitehead’s philosophical method of descriptive generalization. This method assumes that every philosophical system is based on a particular entry point. We show that for Whitehead this entry point was aesthetics. Chapter Two compares Whitehead and Dewey’s philosophies to show that both viewed aesthetic experience in terms of complex rhythms; this helps us better understand the differences and the continuities between everyday experience and art. Chapter Three compares Whitehead’s ideas with those of Henri Bergson, showing the way art reveals the form of immediate experience and how the aesthetic experience of art relates to truth. The final chapter details the processes that constitute aesthetic experience in a narrower sense, analyzing aesthetic experience from the perspective of the types of abstractive processes it involves and the complex types of experience it produces.




An Introduction to Kant's Aesthetics


Book Description

In An Introduction to Kant’s Aesthetics, Christian Wenzel discusses and demystifies Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment, guiding the reader each step of the way and placing key points of discussion in the context of Kant’s other work. Explains difficult concepts in plain language, using numerous examples and a helpful glossary. Proceeds in the same order as Kant’s text for ease of reference and comprehension. Includes an illuminating foreword by Henry E. Allison. Offers twenty-six further-reading sections, commenting briefly on books and articles from the English, German, and French, that are relevant for each topic Provides an extensive bibliography and a chapter summarizing Kant's main points.




Greek Aesthetic Theory


Book Description

This book provides a clear and informed account of aesthetic and callistic concepts as they occur in the works of Plato and Aristotle. The author illustrates their ideas on art and beauty by close reference to their texts and finds a profound similarity which unites them, revealing many of their differences to be complementary aspects of an essentially similar viewpoint. He also shows how Greek notions of art and beauty are not merely primitive steps in the advance to modern ideas but have a direct relevance to modern critical controversies.




The Aesthetics of Toni Morrison


Book Description

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison's novels have almost exclusively been examined as sagas illuminating history, race, culture, and gender politics. This gathering of eight essays by top scholars probes Morrison's novels and her growing body of nonfiction and critical work for the complex and potent aesthetic elements that have made her a major American novelist of the twentieth century. Through traditional aesthetic concepts such as the sublime, the beautiful, and the grotesque, through issues of form, narrative, and language, and through questions of affect and reader response, the nine essays in this volume bring into relief the dynamic and often overlooked range within Morrison's writing. Employing aesthetic ideas that range from the ancient Greeks to contemporary research in the black English oral tradition, The Aesthetics of Toni Morrison shows the potency of these ideas for interpreting Morrison's writing. This is a force Morrison herself has often suggested in her claims that Greek tragedy bears a striking similarity to "Afro-American communal structures." At the same time each essay attends to the ways in which Morrison also challenges traditional aesthetic concepts, establishing the African American and female voices that are essential to her sensibility. The result is a series of readings that simultaneously expands our understanding of Morrison's work and also provokes new thinking about an aesthetic tradition that is nearly 2,500 years old. These essays offer a rich complement to the dominant approaches in Morrison scholarship by revealing aspects of her work that purely ideological approaches have obscured or about which they have remained oddly silent. Each essay focuses particularly on the relations between the aesthetic and the ethical in Morrison's writing and between the artistic production and its role in the world at large. These relations show the rich political implications that aesthetic analysis engenders. By treating both Morrison's fiction and her nonfiction, the essays reveal a mind and imagination that have long been intimately engaged with the questions and traditions of the aesthetic domain. The result is a provocative and original contribution to Morrison scholarship, and to scholarship in American letters generally.