Aesthetics and nature / Glenn Parsons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parsons, Glenn.

Series:

Continuum aesthetics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nature (Aesthetics).

Physical Description:

x, 164 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum International Pub., [2008]

Summary:

Aesthetics and Nature offers a clear and accessible introduction to the field of nature aesthetics. Glenn Parsons explores the current debates in the field, providing the reader with a thorough overview of the subject.

The book situates nature aesthetics in relation to two principal influences: aesthetics traditional project of understanding the value of art, and current thought on the ethics of our relationship with nature. The book outlines five major approaches to understanding the aesthetic value of nature and explores the aesthetic appreciation of nature as it occurs in wilderness in gardens, and in the context of appreciating environmental art. The book also includes a study of the idea that conserving nature's beauty provides is compelling reason to preserve wilderness. This highly topical idea has deep implications for the importance of aesthetic value in our relationship to nature and for the fate of nature itself.

Contents:

1 Approaching the Philosophy of Natural Beauty 1

Two Worries About Natural Beauty 1

A Short History of Taste in Landscape 6

Philosophical Definition and 'Having an Aesthetic Quality' 11

2 Imagination, Belief and the Aesthetics of Nature 18

The Role of Thought 18

A Post-modern Approach to the Aesthetics of Nature 23

Objections to the Post-modern Approach 26

3 Formalism 34

Formalism, Nature and Pictures 34

Strengths of Formalism 39

Objections to Formalism 43

4 Science and Nature Aesthetics 49

Science and the 'Nature Critic' 49

Another Turn in the Taste for Landscape? 54

Objections to the Science-based Approach 59

5 Pluralism 66

Modest Pluralism 66

Robust Pluralism 72

Objections to Pluralism 76

6 Nature and the Disembodied Aesthetic 81

The Challenge to the Disembodied Aesthetic 81

An Engaged Aesthetic for Nature 85

Criticisms of the Engaged Aesthetic 89

7 Aesthetics and the Preservation of Nature 95

Aesthetic Preservation in Theory and Practice 96

Two Issues for Aesthetic Preservation 102

The Preservationist's Dilemma 107

8 Nature in the Garden 114

The Garden as Nature 114

The Garden as Art 118

Is Nature Essential to the Garden? 121

9 Art in Nature 128

Environmental Art: An Affront to Nature? 128

Defending Environmental Art 132

Is the Effrontery Charge Coherent? 137.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-159) and index.

ISBN:

9780826496751

082649675X

9780826496768

0826496768

OCLC:

190777946