Taste and experience in eighteenth century British aesthetics : the move towards empiricism / Dabney Townsend.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Townsend, Dabney, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aesthetics, British--18th century.

Aesthetics, British.

Art and philosophy--History--18th century.

Art and philosophy.

Art--Philosophy.

Art.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Distribution:

[London, England] : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022

Place of Publication:

London [England] : Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.

Summary:

"Taste and Experience in Eighteenth Century Aesthetics acknowledges theories of taste, beauty, the fine arts, genius, expression, the sublime and the picturesque in their own right, distinct from later theories of an exclusively aesthetic kind of experience. By drawing on a wealth of thinkers, including several marginalised philosophers, Dabney Townsend presents a novel reading of the century to challenge our understanding of art and move towards a unique way of thinking about aesthetics. Speaking of a proto-aesthetic, Townsend surveys theories of taste and beauty arising from the empiricist shift in philosophy. A proto-aesthetic was shaped by the philosophers who followed Locke and accepted that theories of taste and beauty must be products of experience alone. Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Alexander Gerard and Thomas Reid were among the most important advocates, joined by others who re-thought traditional topics. Featuring chapters tracing its philosophical principles, issues raised by the subjectivity of the empiricist approach and the more academic proto-aesthetic formed toward the end of the century, Townsend argues that Lockean empiricism laid the foundations for what we now call aesthetics."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

1. The Empiricist Move in Aesthetics: Locke and Shaftesbury

2. Francis Hutcheson: The Sense of Taste

3. Hume: The Priority of Sentiment

4. Associationism: David Hartley and Joseph Priestley

5. Theories of Taste

6. Problems of Taste: The Tragic Paradox and a Standard of Taste

7. Genius

8. The Sublime: Baillie and Burke

9. The Picturesque

10. Thomas Reid and the Theory of Taste

11. Archibald Alison: Experience and Expression

12. Dugald Stewart: Beauty and Taste Again

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781350298736

1350298735

1-350-29871-9

OCLC:

1295394258