DIVDIVRenowned French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre references artists such as Tintoretto, Calder, Lapoujade, Titian, Raphael, and Michaelangelo in discussing how great art of the past relates to the challenges of his era/divDIVEssays in Aesthetics is a provocative collection that considers the nature of art and its meaning. Sartre considers the artist’s “function,” and the relation of art and the artist to the human condition. Sartre integrates his deep concern for the sensibilities of the artist with a fascinating analysis of the techniques of the artist as creator. The result is a vibrant manifesto of existentialist aesthetics./divDIV /divDIVBy looking at existentialism through the lens of great art, Essays in Aesthetics is just as valuable a read to the artist as it is to the philosopher./divDIV /div/div

Available for the first time in English, Li Zehou's philosophical aesthetics interpret the historical origins and evolution of aesthetic experience and their significance to the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth of human beings. Although LI's ideas have been debated in China for more than two decades, his conversations with Jane Cauvel will now allow Western students and philosophers to re-encounter Chinese and Western conceptions of aesthetics, and the way art shapes indiciduals, societies, technology, and the future of humankind.

Claims authorial intention, art history, and morality play a role in our encounter with art works.

This collection presents twenty-seven new essays in Japanese aesthetics by leading experts in the field. Beginning with an extended foreword by the renowned scholar and artist Stephen Addiss and a comprehensive introduction that surveys the history of Japanese aesthetics and the ways in which it is similar to and different from Western aesthetics, this groundbreaking work brings together a large variety of disciplinary perspectives—including philosophy, literature, and cultural politics—to shed light on the artistic and aesthetic traditions of Japan and the central themes in Japanese art and aesthetics. Contributors explore topics from the philosophical groundings for Japanese aesthetics and the Japanese aesthetics of imperfection and insufficiency to the Japanese love of and respect for nature and the paradoxical ability of Japanese art and culture to absorb enormous amounts of foreign influence and yet maintain its own unique identity. New Essays in Japanese Aesthetics will appeal not only to a wide range of humanities scholars but also to graduate and undergraduate students of Japanese aesthetics, art, philosophy, literature, culture, and civilization. Masterfully articulating the contributors’ Japanese-aesthetical concerns and their application to Japanese arts (including literature, theater, film, drawing, painting, calligraphy, ceramics, crafts, music, fashion, comics, cooking, packaging, gardening, landscape architecture, flower arrangement, the martial arts, and the tea ceremony), these engaging and penetrating essays will also appealto nonacademic professionals and general audiences. This seminal work will be essential reading for anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of Japanese aesthetics.

The book brings together a selection of Malcolm Budd's essays in aesthetics. A number of the essays are aimed at the abstract heart of aesthetics, attempting to solve a cluster of the most important issues in aesthetics which are not specific to particular art forms. These include the nature and proper scope of the aesthetic, the intersubjective validity of aesthetic judgements, the correct understanding of aesthetic judgements expressed through metaphors, aesthetic realism versus anti-realism, the character of aesthetic pleasure and aesthetic value, the aim of art and the artistic expression of emotion. Other essays are focussed on central issues in the aesthetics of particular art forms: two engage with the most fundamental issue in the aesthetics of music, the question of the correct conception of the phenomenology of the experience of listening to music with understanding; and two consider the nature of pictorial representation, one examining certain well-known views, the other articulating an alternative conception of seeing a picture as a depiction of a certain state of affairs. The final essay in the volume is a comprehensive reconstruction and critical examination of Wittgenstein's aesthetics, both early and late.

"This book is a first of its kind: an edited collection bringing the finest of Georg Simmel's writing on art and aesthetics together, and bringing many of these essays into English for the first time. Simmel is considered one of the founding fathers of modern sociology but he, like his contemporary Walter Benjamin, wrote about many aspects of life and culture. Simmel's intellectual contributions have long been recognized and he is a keystone in cultural theory of the early 20th century. The essays in this collection are gathered topically and show the wide range of Simmel's thinking even within the arts: aesthetics, landscape, theater, sculpture, literature, and more. Austin Harrington is the brilliant guide behind this substantial volume. He served as editor and translator and also wrote an introduction. Richly informative and thoroughly familiar with Simmel's life and work, Harrington's introduction will itself be an important contribution to the scholarship on Simmel"--

Previous ed.: Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990.

The renowned French philosopher lays the foundation for an Existentialist approach to psychology and aesthetics in this pair of classic works. In The Emotions: Outline of a Theory, Jean-Paul Sartre explores the role of emotions in the human psyche, presenting a phenomenological approach to psychology. Analyzing the universal, yet subjective, experiences of fear, lust, anguish, and melancholy, Sartre asserts that human beings develop their emotional capabilities from a very early age, which helps them identify and understand the names and qualities of their feelings later in life. Essays in Aesthetics is a provocative collection that explores the nature of art and its meaning. Sartre considers the artist’s “function,” and the relation between art and the human condition. Engaging with the works of Tintoretto, Calder, Lapoujade, Titian, Raphael, and Michaelangelo, Sartre offers a fascinating analysis of the creative process. The result is a vibrant manifesto of existentialist aesthetics.