Placing aesthetics : reflections on the philosophic tradition / Robert E. Wood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wood, Robert E., 1934-

Series:

Series in Continental thought ; 26.

Series in Continental thought ; 26

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aesthetics--History.

Aesthetics.

History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 413 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, [1999]

Summary:

Examining select high points in the speculative tradition from Plato and Aristotle through the Middle Ages and German tradition to Dewey and Heidegger, Placing Aesthetics seeks to locate the aesthetic concern within the larger framework of each thinker's philosophy.

In Professor Robert Wood's study, aesthetics is not peripheral but rather central to the speculative tradition and to human existence as such. In Dewey's terms, aesthetics is "experience in its integrity". Its personal ground is in "the heart", which is the dispositional ground formed by genetic, cultural, and personal historical factors by which we are spontaneously moved and, in turn, are inclined to move, both practically and theoretically, in certain directions.

Prepared for use by the student as well as the philosopher, Placing Aesthetics aims to recover the fullness of humanness within a sense of the fullness of encompassing Being. It attempts to overcome the splitting of thought, even in philosophy, into exclusive specializations and the fracturing of life itself into theoretical, practical, and emotive dimensions.

Contents:

I. Introduction: Fine Art and the Field of Experience 1

The Threefold Structure of the Field of Experience 2

The Manifold Forms of Art 14

A Preliminary Descriptive System of the Fine Arts 18

Phenomenological, Hermeneutic, and Dialogic Approaches 30

II. Plato 35

Art in the Purged City 36

The Center of Order 44

Mimesis 50

The Treatment of Art in the Republic 52

The Ladder of Ascent to Beauty Itself 57

A Brief Excursus: Plato and Wright on Architecture 69

III. Aristotle 71

Meanings of the Term Art 71

Nature Illumined by Art: Plato and Aristotle 75

Art as Imitation 77

Division of the Performing Arts 82

The Definition of Tragedy 84

IV. Plotinus and the Latin Middle Ages 95

Plotinus 96

Aquinas among the Latin Medievals 102

V. Kant 117

Critique of Pure Reason 118

Critique of Practical Reason 123

Critique of Judgment 126

The Beautiful 128

The Sublime 136

Art and Genius 140

Nature's Ultimate and Final Purpose 143

Epilogue: Hume's Notion of Aesthetic Community 152

VI. Hegel 159

Hegel, Enlightenment, and Christianity 159

The Starting Point of the Hegelian System 163

The Development of the System 166

The Nature of Art 172

The Basic Stages and Forms of Art 176

VII. Schopenhauer 187

A Synthesis of Kant, Plato, and the Indian Tradition 187

The World as Will and Representation 189

Aesthetic Experience and the Work of Art 194

The Forms of Art 196

VIII. Nietzsche 203

Nietzsche's Horizon 203

Nietzsche's Aesthetics 216

IX. Dewey 231

Overcoming the Platonic Splits 232

Overcoming the Cartesian Splits 234

Further Modifications of Traditional Notions 241

Dewey's Aesthetics 246

X. Heidegger 263

Situating Heidegger 263

"The Origin of the Work of Art" 272

What Is a Thing? 274

Philosophy, Science, Art, and the Lifeworld 280

The Sensory Field 305

The Cultural World 310

Transcendence 319

Appendix On Sculptural Production 329

Descriptions 329

Reflections 340.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [391]-406) and indexes.

ISBN:

0821412809

0821412817

OCLC:

41256260