Aesthetics: The Classic Readings

This is the first volume to be published in and exciting new series of classic collections in philosophy. It contains a wealth of historic writings on aesthetics, stretching from Plato to Collingwood, and is essential reading for both students and researchers who take the traditions of aesthetic thought seriously. The volume includes such classics of western philosophy as Hume′s essay on taste and Schopenhauer′s discussion of music, as well as notable writings by Chinese and Indian thinkers, such as Mo Tzu and Coomaraswamy. The scope of aesthetics is understood widely, to include discussions of natural beauty as well as the theory of art, and the selected readings address a wide range of issues including the relation between art, morality and politics, artistic creativity, the criteria for aesthetic judgement, and the nature of aesthetic pleasure. The volume begins with a substantial introduction to aesthetics and each selected text is prefaced by a helpful discussion of its context, content and relationship to other writings.

Series Preface. Introduction. 1. Republic, Book 10: Plato. 2. Poetics, Chapters 1–13: Aristotle. 3. Against Music: Mo Tzu. A Discussion of Music: Hsun Tzu. 4. Enneads, 1.6: Plotinus. 5. Quotes on Painting: Shih–t′oa. 6. Of the Standard Taste: Hume. 7. Critique of Aesthetic Judgement 1–13, 16, 23–4, 28: Kant. 8. On the Aesthetic Education of Man, Letters 26–7: Schiller. 9. Introduction to Aesthetics, Chapters 1–3: Hegel. 10. The World as Will and Representation, Vol I 52: Schopenhauer. 11. On Art: Tolstoy. 12. Art, Chapter 1: Bell. 13. The Dance of Siva, Chapters 2–3: Coomaraswamy. 14. Art as Experience, Chapter 1: Dewey. 15. On the Origin of the Work of Art: Heidegger. 16. The Principles of Art, Chapter 7: Collingwood. Index.

David E. Cooper is Professor of Philosophy at East Carolina State University. He is the author of a number of books including Metaphor (1986), Existentialism (1990) and World Philosophies (Blackwell Publishers, 1996) and is also editor of Aesthetics: The Classic Readings (Blackwell Publishers, 1992).

"The finest aesthetics anthology available. Cooper has boiled his selections down to the truly classic writings, visionary and formative, and provided crisp insightful introductions. No other anthology matches his in the rich depth of reflections on art and the aesthetic to be found in the selections chosen." Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University <!––end––>"What Cooper offers is a manageable, wide–ranging yet economical, and carefully reasoned selection for beginning students in aesthetics." Joseph Margolis, Temple University