General Aim

This book is an introduction to some influential theories in philosophy of art. It combines excerpts of historically important texts from European and American culture with explanations of the key ideas in those texts. The most recent of these texts dates from 1929.

The overall organization is topical. Five topics have been selected. (See below for a list of topics and authors.) The chapters are relatively independent of one another and can be approached in any order.

Readers seeking an introduction to the overlapping topic of aesthetic theory should concentrate on Chapter 4. However, aesthetic theory is a broad field that only partially overlaps with philosophy of art, and the book as a whole should not be approached as an introduction to aesthetic theory. (For example, the aesthetic dimension of the natural world is an important topic, but not covered here.) As a final point of clarification, it must be noted that philosophizing about art and beauty is not confined to the Western tradition. Inquiry into the nature and value of literature and music is also present in the ancient texts of East Asia, including works attributed to Confucius. However, this book is about European and European-derived philosophy of art.

What Is Philosophy?

Today, philosophy is primarily an academic area of study and research. However, it was recognized to be a special kind of inquiry long before it became an academic field. First and foremost, philosophy is critical engagement with ideas. As such, philosophy of art can be found in a wide range of writings and not just those written by “philosophers.”

The first recorded philosophizing in the Western tradition was in ancient Greece about 2500 years ago. As the Greeks conceived of it, philosophy is the practice of questioning our most basic assumptions about the world and our place in it. One of the hallmarks of philosophizing as developed in European culture is a willingness to consider the possibility that our most cherished ideas are wrong. Thus, philosophy is present whenever there is critical engagement with common beliefs about the nature of reality, the existence of gods or God, the relationship between religion and morality, or the demands of justice.

In line with this tradition, philosophers try to identify the central ideas that organize our thinking, then ask whether those ideas make sense. They test these ideas logically, that is, by asking about their consistency with other things we accept. Therefore, philosophers employ methods of analysis, criticism, and argument. As practiced in the Western tradition, philosophy can be annoying, confusing, and threatening to people who do not want to question their basic assumptions and ideas.

Turning now to the topic of art, we find that it was an important topic among the ancient philosophers who founded the Western philosophical tradition. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle philosophized about it. Yet, as explained in Chapter 1, they did not call it “art.” They philosophized about the human tendency to engage in picture making, story telling, and theatrical and musical performances. They asked what value these practices have for us.

Philosophers are not the only ones who have contributed to philosophy of art. Many artists have contributed to the field. (For example, this book presents the ideas of Leo Tolstoy, Alfred Stieglitz, and Virginia Woolf.) Philosophizing about art is common in the work of art historians, literary theorists, musicologists, and art critics, too.

How This Book Is Organized

Each of the five chapters takes up a different question about the arts, and explores some competing views responding to the question.

Here are the topics of the five chapters.

1. What was the basic idea that was originally identified to explain the value of fine art?
2. Does artistic genius explain creativity and originality in the arts?
3. Are the arts of value as the expression of human emotion?
4. Do the arts have a special kind of value, aesthetic value?
5. Do the arts have cognitive value? That is, do the arts teach us anything about the world?

Each chapter has two components: source documents and introductory explanations.

The source documents are historical texts in the public domain. In each case, the document is an excerpt, that is, it is pulled from a larger text. This is done so that we can focus on just the ideas that are the subject of that chapter. Each text is newly edited specifically for this book. In the case of each translation except Leo Tolstoy, I have made some minor adjustments to the translations after comparing several translations and consulting the original texts.

These source documents are easily identified within the chapters. They are the texts with a shaded background, surrounded by a thin black line.

Here are the main figures whose writings are excerpted in each chapter:

1. Aristotle, Giorgio Vasari, Charles Batteux, Alfred Stieglitz
2. Immanuel Kant, Virginia Woolf, David Hume
3. John Keats, Leo Tolstoy, T.S. Eliot
4. Eduard Hanslick, Clive Bell, Edward Bullough
5. Plato, Immanuel Kant

Before a source document is introduced, there is a general introduction to the topic it addresses. Additionally, the chapters are divided into numbered sections, allowing you to keep track of where competing perspectives are located.

Advice for students

Plan on reading everything more than once. It is almost impossible to appreciate what is being said in a philosophical text the first time you read it. Therefore, set aside time for reading. Read, take notes as you read, get a sense of the overall point, then read it again to understand the flow of the analysis and argumentation. Paragraphs that introduce unfamiliar ideas may require many readings to allow the idea to sink in.