Philosophy discussion

I just started this list of books on Aesthetics - I'd appreciate the input of others to flesh out the list, I'm sure I missed many great books on the subject.

Thanks for the list, Tom. I've added quite a few to my to-read shelf.

Just out of curiosity, I see two books mentioning Heidegger, but not one written by him. Is there a reason for that?

Thank you, Tom, I appreciate your starting this list. I've only read a couple of the books on the list; looking forward to reading more. A few more that should be on the list (partially in answer to Nemo):

The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
Poetry, Language, Thought by Martin Heidegger
The Republic, Plato

I tried to add them myself but only saw a way to "vote" for them, but when I voted, they didn't show up on the list. How does this work; do you have to approve them? I don't necessarily consider these my favorites; I didn't care at all for what Plato had to say in the Republic concerning aesthetics but he does discuss the topic.

Update - I see them on the list now.

Caterina wrote: "Thank you, Tom, I appreciate your starting this list. I've only read a couple of the books on the list; looking forward to reading more. A few more that should be on the list (partially in answer t..."

When I think of Aesthetic Philosophy does not come to mind at first. Generally Aestehtics is part of critique. Art in itself requires a knowledge of critique and aesthetics to even start making works of art. Ask yourself this what type of art field do you like Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics. Then I would look into books in the field you like that focus on critique of individual types of art. For example in Drawing you have to create an Aesthetic focal point so the viewer has something to focus on. Plato in the "Republic" note in conversation should the eyes in a sculpture be black why not purple. Indigo or Indicum is used by dyers and purple has color. Questions like this start upon the beginning of the thought process in critique. Nietzsche argues "Plastic Art" the form of sculpture is plastic and tragedy is true art. I do not beleive this, I feel Nietzches grasp on critique lacked an emotion, he was certainly encumbered by the German writing style and the harshness of its linguistics.

It would be very helpful if people could write a brief summary/review of the book they are voting or have voted for.

I personally think that a good book on beauty must also evoke a sense of beauty in the reader. Otherwise, the author either doesn't know what s/he is talking about, or is unwilling and unable to practice what s/he preaches.

What is Art by Leo Tolstoy, one of few books on the list that I've read, meets the above criterion for me. There is a summary at my blog and a link to the online book page.

Susan Sontag has written about aesthetics. Walter Benjamin is quite popular, as well as Roland Barthes. Also, this: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/69...

Ayn Rand has written about objectivism in art, although I'm not sure whether she's worth reading.

Joseph margoulis -philosophy looks at the arts

Crucial omission, Susanne Langer's work - particularly Feeling and Form and Philosophy in a New Key (which deals with the nature of symbol - surely a fundamental topic in discussions on the nature of art). Also, Langer took the cue from Ernst Cassirer's Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, which integrates aesthetics into the larger critique of reason through a philosophy of symbol.

Elena where is a good place for me to start reading about aesthetics in art? I'm a practicing contemporary artist and would like to learn more about it.

Jordan, Langer's Feeling and Form is probably the best place to start. You could read a bit about it in order to see if it's what you are looking for. I think it is one of the best philosophical explorations of the nature of poiesis out there, aside from Heidegger's. Most other works on aesthetics I have tried don't go quite to the heart of the matter - ie, the real fundamental issues, such as the nature of poiesis - and instead deal with various more peripheral issues.

Langer's work is great also because it treats aesthetics as more than some specialist discipline, and instead shows how it can contribute crucial insights to the understanding of all of the rest of philosophy (something few other thinkers seem to appreciate). When a philosopher thinks of form, for some strange reason artistic form seldom comes to mind. The paradigm here is derived from mathematical and logical form, even though philosophic thought is seldom elaborated along a framework of either mathematics or formal logic. Langer's work shows how this tends to impoverish our concept of reason, of meaning, of thought, and yes, of form. Her work in aesthetics shows how a more fully fleshed out understanding of form is an invaluable tool that leads to more powerful philosophical self-reflexivity.

Interesting that Aristotle's Poetics doesn't make the list.

I added Frank Wilczek's A Beautiful Question
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

That's a wonderful list. I read down approx 3/4 of the way before the titles began to swim before my eyes.

I'll add my suggestions (if any already present, please pardon me)

Which "Aesthetics" Do You Mean?: Ten Definitions
(a tiny book with an illustration for each chapter, merely intended to provoke question in the reader)
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity
(a fabulous dissection of how aesthetic values fare under various political systems)
Ways of Seeing
(How we 'look' at paintings)
Passionate Views: Film, Cognition, and Emotion (collection of essays on how we respond emotionally to movies)
Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention
(superb examination of brain function as the eye reads literature)
In the Blink of an Eye
(slim book by renowned film editor, Walter Murch--describing eye function while watching a movie)
Film Form: Essays in Film Theory
(Examines the techniques introduced by Eisenstein with regard to visual composition in film.)
Phenomenology of Perception
(Merleau-Ponty's masterwork; I feel it to be essential for any conversation about 'seeing')
A Natural History of the Senses
(not theory, but more just a collection of observations)
The Poetics of Space
(short but pithy, part of the fun series of 'poetics' books from this deft thinker)

Cinema is a factor in my background, (as well as painting, etc) so I could add several more titles from that quadrant--but I'm not sure that's appropriate here.

I just purchased Beauty: A Very Short Introduction, but have not read it yet. I have read another bok by the author, Roger Scruton, that was pretty decent.

I love that VSI series.

Feliks wrote: "I'll add my suggestions (if any already present, please pardon me).."

Thanks for the suggestions, Feliks. I've added a few to my bookshelf.

Nemo wrote: "It would be very helpful if people could write a brief summary/review of the book they are voting or have voted for.

I personally think that a good book on beauty must also evoke a sense of beauty..."

Or... some interpretation/framework of the truth/facts/nature of `aesthetics for humanity' is fundamentally ugly, and the writers go for that interpretation/framework. But, that would be rather weird: who, investing time on something like aesthetics, would pick/be drawn to a theory or a portrayal of the sense of the nature of it, that, in itself would be not `pretty'?

That's not to say that they would definitely have the skills to portray that `pretty idea' in a non-`pretty' way.

The only thing on aesthetics I've read is the notes on the lectures of Wittgenstein on the topic (bar a few odd small bits from `feeling and form'). Therefore, I fear, I'm not going to be much use to your plight.

I've voted for some philosophy of film and music books. These were the books that I've had to read for university, and I've found them really insightful and interesting.

Elena wrote: "Jordan, Langer's Feeling and Form is probably the best place to start. You could read a bit about it in order to see if it's what you are looking for. I think it is one of the best philosophical ex..."

Although I have shelved some books on aesthetics, I have yet to read one. I have my own ideas that I would like to explore, but I think it is also somewhat prudent to see what has already been written. It is rather intimidating.

You suggest this book as a good starting point, and I think, after seeing that various topics are being discussed here in these threads, that other people's knowledge (the unknown/known category, which always makes me smirk and think of Nicholas Taleb's story) about a subject might be helpful in directing me toward those ideas most potentially similar to my own.

I see aesthetics as a sort of irreducibly complex function of cognition. In other words, while there might be some commonality of taste between people (or even animals), each experience of what is beautiful is unique and dynamic according to the patterns that are "lit up" when we see (or in some other way experience) them. I seem to recall that studies have been done with animals to determine what sorts of patterns of stimuli pique their curiosity. Apparently, animals tend to have their attention directed toward patterns of stimuli that are unique. Yet, this begs the question of how something can be determined to be unique.

I believe that more subtle or expansive patterns are more likely to be identified as unique where there is a higher level of intuitive intelligence. Yet there is also the question of what sort of balance is required between what constitutes a pattern, and what constitutes an attractive difference within a pattern, the combination of which will be experienced as beautiful.

Certainly, someone somewhere has explored such ideas before. Would anyone happen to have any suggestions (if this book does not cover these ideas) as to which book I should look to?

Thanks.