Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction

Description

Philosophy of Art is a textbook for undergraduate students studying philosophical aesthetics. It introduces the techniques of analytic philosophy, as well as key topics such as the representational theory of art, formalism, neo-formalism, aesthetic theories of art, neo-Wittgensteinism, the Institutional Theory of Art and historical approaches to the nature of art. Throughout the book, abstract philosophical theories are illustrated by examples of both traditional and contemporary art, enriching the reader's understanding of art theory as well as the appreciation of art.

Noel Carroll is the Monroe C. Beardsley Professor of the Philosophy of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently also President of the American Society for Aesthetics and has been a documentary screenwriter and a journalist. Other books include, The Philosophy of Horror (Routledge, 1990) and A Philosophy of Mass Art (1998).

"The book's strength is its concise and straightforward deciphering of a variety of representations in a dense manner."-Choice, May 2000