Last Updated 04/05/05
Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that examines all aspects of aesthetic appreciation and evaluation. Questions range from relatively narrow concerns about the various art-forms such as ‘Can purely instrumental music express emotion?' or ‘Is pictorial representation best understood in terms of a system of semantic conventions?' to wider questions about the metaphysics and epistemology of aesthetic and artistic value such as ‘What is it for something to be aesthetic?' or ‘Are aesthetic judgements objective, subjective or both?'. Philosophical aesthetics is a discipline best studied in conjunction with other areas of philosophy such as ethics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology and metaphysics.
Budd, M. 1995. Values of Art: Pictures, Poetry and Music. London: Penguin.
Carroll, N. 1999. Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction. London: Routledge.
Lyas, C. 1997. Aesthetics. London: UCL Press.
Plato, Republic, esp. Bks.2-3, 10. Various translations.
—, Ion. Various translations.
Aristotle, Poetics. Various translations.
Hume, D. ‘Of the Standard of Taste'. In Of the Standard of Taste and Other Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963 (collection originally published 1903); also in Selected Essays , edited with an introduction by Stephen Copley and Andrew Edgar, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Kant, I. 2000. The Critique of the Power of Judgement. Translated by P. Guyer and E. Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pt.I: ‘The Critique of Aesthetic judgement'.
Schiller, F. Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters. Translated and edited by Elizabeth M. Wilkinson, and L. A. Willoughby. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
Schopenhauer, A. The World as Will and Representation , Vol.I, Bk.III, Vol. II, Supplements to Bk. III.
Hegel, G. W. F. Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art. Translated by T. M. Knox. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
Nietzsche, F. The Birth of Tragedy. Translated by Douglas Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Tolstoy, L. What is Art? Various translations.
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Beardsley, M. C. & Wimsatt, W. K. 1946. ‘The Intentional Fallacy'. Sewanee Review, vol. 54. Reprinted in Dickie & Sclafani 1989. (see Collections).
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Danto, A. C. 1981. The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: a Philosophy of Art. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Dickie, G. 1974. Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis. Ithaca, NY.: Cornell University Press.
Goodman, N. 1969. Languages of Art: an Approach to a Theory of Symbols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heidegger, M. ‘The Origin of the Work of Art'. In Poetry, Language and Thought , Ch.2, also in Basic Writings.
Hepburn, R. W. 1967. ‘Contemporary Aesthetics and the Neglect of Natural Beauty'. In Williams, B. & Montefiore, A. (eds.), British Analytical Philosophy. London: Routledge.
Langer, S. K. 1957. Philosophy in a New Key: a Study in the Symbolism of Reason , Rite and Art. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Levinson, J. 1996. The Pleasures of Aesthetics: Philosophical Essays. Ithaca, NY.: Cornell University Press.
—. 1990. Music, Art and Metaphysics: Essays in Philosophical Aesthetics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
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Sibley, F. 1959. ‘A Contemporary Theory of Aesthetic Qualities: Aesthetic Concepts'. The Philosophical Review , vol. 68, pp. 421-450. Reprinted in Dickie & Sclafani 1977.
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Walton, K. 1990. Mimesis as Make-Believe: on the Foundations of the Representational Arts. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Wollheim, R. 1978. Art and Its Objects. 2d ed. London: Penguin.
Wollheim, R. 1973. On Art and the Mind. London: Allen Lane.
Bermudez, J. & Gardner, S. eds. 2003. Art and Morality. London: Routledge.
Dickie, G., & Sclafani R. J.. 1977. eds. Aesthetics: A Critical Anthology. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Elton, W. ed. 1954. Aesthetics and Language: Essays. Oxford: Blackwell.
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Gaut, B. & Lopes, D. eds. 2001. The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics. London: Routledge.
Hjort, M., & Laver S. eds. 1997. Emotion and the Arts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kieran, M. & Lopes, D. eds. 2003. Imagination, Philosophy, and the Arts. Routledge.
Levinson, J. ed. 2003. The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Margolis, J. ed. 1978. Philosophy Looks at the Arts: Contemporary Readings in Aesthetics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Neill, A., & Ridley A. eds. 1995. Arguing about Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Wollheim, R. 1973. On Art & the Mind. London: Allen Lane.
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Budd, M. 1998. ‘Delight in the Natural World'. Part I. British Journal of Aesthetics. Vol.38, no.1.
Burnham, D. 2000. An Introduction to Kant's Critique of Judgement. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Cohen, T. & Guyer, P. 1982. Essays in Kant's Aesthetics. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Guyer, P. 1997. Kant and The Claims of Taste. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kemal, S. 1997. Kant's Aesthetic Theory: An Introduction. London: MacMillan.
Makkreel, R.A. 1990. Imagination and Interpretation in Kant: The Hermeneutical Import of the Critique of Judgement. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
McCloskey, M. 1986. Kant's Aesthetic. New York: State University of New York Press.
Savile, A. 1993. Kantian Aesthetics Pursued. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Plato, Republic, Bks.2-3, 10. Any translation.
——, Ion. Any translation.
——, Hippias Major. Any translation.
(Additional reading: Plato, Laws, Bks.2, 7; Gorgias, 499c-503d; Phaedrus, 245a-249d, 274b-279c.)
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Ferrari, G. R. F. 1989. ‘Plato and the Poets'. In George A. Kennedy, ed., The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism , Vol.1: Classical Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nehamas, Alexander. 1988. ‘Plato and the Mass Media'. The Monist Vol 71: 214-234.
Janaway, C. 1995. Images of Excellence: Plato's Critique of the Arts. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Aristotle, Poetics. Any translation.
Halliwell, S. 1986. Aristotle's Poetics. London : Duckworth.
House, H. 1956. Aristotle's Poetics: a Course of Eight Lectures. London: Hart-Davis.
Oksenberg Rorty, A. (ed.). 1992. Essays on Aristotle's Poetics. Princeton : Princeton University Press.
Schaper, E. 1968. Prelude to Aesthetics. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Beardsley, M. C. 1982. ‘Redefining Art'. Reprinted in Davies, S. 1991, Definitions of Art.
Carroll, N. 1998. A Philosophy of Mass Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Danto, A. 1981. The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: a Philosophy of Art. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Davies, S. 1991. Definitions of Art , Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press.
Dickie, G. 1974. Art and the Aesthetic. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press.
Dickie, G. 1984. The Art Circle: a Theory of Art , New York: Haven.
Levinson, J. 1979. ‘Defining Art Historically'. Reprinted in his 1991, Music, Art, Metaphysics. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press.
Stecker, R. 1997. Artworks: Definition, Meaning, Value. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Collingwood, R.G. 1970. The Principles of Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Currie, G. 1989. An Ontology of Art. London: St. Martin's Press.
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Davies, D. 2004. Art as Performance. Oxford: Blackwell.
Goodman, N. 1968. Languages of Art. Bobbs-Merrill.
Goodman, N. 1969. Languages of Art: an Approach to a Theory of Symbols , Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ch. III.
Levinson, J. 1991. Music, Art and Metaphysics: Essays in Philosophical Aesthetics, Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press.
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Wollheim, R. 1980. Art and Its Objects. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Woltersdorff, N. 1980. Works and Worlds of Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Plato. The Republic. Book X. Any translation.
Kant, I. 2000. The Critique of the Power of Judgement. Translated by P. Guyer and E. Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Secs.1-22, 43-52, 56-60.
Schiller, F. Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters. Translated and edited by Elizabeth M. Wilkinson, and L. A. Willoughby. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
Hegel, G. W. F. Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art. Translated by T. M. Knox. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975. Introduction, esp. [5]-[6].
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Bungay, S. 1984. Beauty and Truth: A Study of Hegel's Aesthetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Goldman, A. 1995. Aesthetic Value. Boulder: Westview Press.
Kieran, M. 2004. Revealing Art. London: Routledge.
Savile, A. 1982. The Test of Time: an Essay in Philosophical Aesthetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Ch.5.
Savile, A. 1987. Aesthetic Reconstructions: the Seminal Writings of Lessing, Kant and Schiller. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Dickie, G. 1964. ‘The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude'. American Philosophical Quarterly , Vol.1. Reprinted in Dickie & Sclafani. 1989.
Hume, D. ‘Of the Standard of Taste'. In Of the Standard of Taste and Other Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963 (collection originally published 1903); also in Selected Essays , edited with an introduction by Stephen Copley and Andrew Edgar. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Iseminger, G. ‘Aesthetic Experience' in Levinson 2003 (see Collections above).
Kant, I. 2000. The Critique of the Power of Judgement. Translated by P. Guyer and E. Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ‘Analytic of the beautiful', sec.1-22.
Levinson, J. 1995. ‘Aesthetic Pleasure'. A Companion to Aesthetics. Cooper, D. ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sibley, F. 1959. ‘Aesthetic Concepts'. Philosophical Review 68: 421-450; reprinted in G. Dickie, and R. J. Sclafani, eds., Aesthetics: A Critical Anthology. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1977.
Sibley, F. 1965. ‘Aesthetic and Nonaesthetic'. Philosophical Review Vol 74: 135-159.
Stolnitz, J. 1961. ‘On the Origin of “Aesthetic Disinterestedness”. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism , Vol. 61-2. Reprinted in Dickie & Sclafani, 1989.
Wittgenstein, L. 1966. Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief. Edited by C. Barrett. Oxford: Blackwell.
Berleant, A. 2004. Re-thinking Aesthetics: Rogue Essays on Aesthetics and the Arts. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Brady, E. 2003. Aesthetics of the Natural Environment. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
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Budd, M. 2000. ‘The Aesthetics of Nature'. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Vol 100: 137-158.
Carlson, A. 2000. Aesthetics and the Environment: the Appreciation of Nature, Art, and Architecture. London: Routledge.
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Gadamer, H.-G. 1995. ‘The Play of Art'. Reprinted in Neill & Ridley 1995.
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Schaper, E. 1983. Pleasure, Preference and Value. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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