Contemplating Art: Essays in Aesthetics

Jerrold Levinson

Oct 2006 · Clarendon Press

About this ebook

Contemplating Art is a compendium of writings from the last ten years by one of the leading figures in aesthetics, Jerrold Levinson. The book contains twenty-four essays and is divided into seven parts. The first is about issues relating to art in general, not specific to one art form. The second and longest part of the book is about philosophical problems specific to music. The third part focuses on pictorial art, and the fourth on interpretation, in particular the interpretation of literature and literary language. In the remaining parts of the book Levinson discusses aesthetic properties, issues in historical aesthetics, humour, and intrinsic value. These lively essays, rigorous but accessible, will appeal not only to philosophers but also to musicologists, literary theorists, art critics, and reflective lovers of the arts.

About the author

Jerrold Levinson is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park. His publications include Music, Art, and Metaphysics (1990), The Pleasures of Aesthetics (1998), and Music in the Moment (1998). He is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics (2003) and co-editor of Aesthetic Concepts (2001). He is Past President of the American Society for Aesthetics and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Aesthetics. His work is widely anthologized and translated into various languages.