Marvelous images : on values and the arts / Kendall L. Walton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walton, Kendall L., 1939-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aesthetics.

Art--Philosophy.

Art.

Photography--Philosophy.

Photography.

Physical Description:

viii, 254 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008.

Summary:

The twelve essays by Kendall Walton in this volume address a broad range of theoretical issues concerning the arts. Many of them apply to the arts generally-to literature, theater, film, music, and the visual arts-but several focus primarily on pictorial representation or photography. In "'How Marvelous!': Toward a Theory of Aesthetic Value" Walton introduces an innovative account of aesthetic value, and in this and other essays he explores relations between aesthetic value and values of other kinds, especially moral values. Two of the essays take on what has come to be called imaginative resistance-a cluster of puzzles that arise when works of fiction ask us to imagine or to accept as true in a fiction moral propositions that we find reprehensible in real life.

"Transparent Pictures," Walton's classic and controversial account of what is special about photographic pictures, is included, along with a new essay on a curious but rarely examined feature of photographs and other still pictures-the fact that a depiction of a momentary state of an object in motion allows viewers to observe that state, in imagination, for an extended period of time. Two older essays round out the collection-another classic, "Categories of Art," and a less well-known essay, "Style and the Products and Processes of Art," which examines the impact appreciators' impressions of how a work of art came about has on their understanding and appreciation.

Contents:

Part I Aesthetic and Moral Values

Chapter 1 "How Marvelous!": Toward a Theory of Aesthetic Value 3

Postscripts to "'How Marvelous!'" 20

Chapter 2 The Test of Time 23

Chapter 3 Morals in Fiction and Fictional Morality 27

Chapter 4 On the (So-Called) Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance 47

Part II Pictures and Photographs

Chapter 5 Pictures and Hobby Horses: Make-Believe beyond Childhood 63

Chapter 6 Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism 79

Postscripts to "Transparent Pictures": Clarifications and To Do's 110

Chapter 7 On Pictures and Photographs: Objections Answered 117

Chapter 8 Seeing-In and Seeing Fictionally 133

Chapter 9 Depiction, Perception, and Imagination: Responses to Richard Wollheim 143

Chapter 10 Experiencing Still Photographs: What Do You See and How Long Do You See It? 157

Part III Categories and Styles

Chapter 11 Categories of Art 195

Chapter 12 Style and the Products and Processes of Art 221.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780195177947

0195177940

9780195177954

0195177959

OCLC:

141854463