The notion of beauty has been and continues to be one of the main concerns of aesthetics and art theory. Traditionally, the centrality of beauty in the experience of art was widely accepted and beauty was considered one of the key values in aesthetics. In recent debate, however, the significance of the notion of beauty has been discussed controversially. Especially in the  second half of the twentieth century, the role of beauty was strongly challenged both by artists and in philosophy and theory of art. Beauty was no longer a central value, but just one aesthetic feature among many others. In recent years, however, the notion of beauty has been reevaluated; some even speak of a “comeback of beauty”. Against this background it is one of the main tasks and challenges of contemporary aesthetics to develop a more profound understanding of the nature of beauty, its different forms and dimensions, and its place in art theory and practice – and in human life.

In the contributions to this volume, leading scholars in the field explore the significance of the notion of beauty, its key aspects, and its relevance in various aesthetic disciplines. The questions addressed in the volume can be summarized in the following three headings: What is beauty? What is beautiful? How does the value of beauty relate to other aesthetical values?

 

The Editors:

Wolfgang Huemer teaches philosophy at the University of Parma. His research focuses mainly on the philosophy of literature, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language as well as on the relation between early analytic philosophy and early phenomenology. He is author of The Constitution of Consciousness: A Study in Analytic Phenomenology (Routledge, 2005) and co-editor of  The Literary Wittgenstein (with John Gibson; Routledge 2004), A Sense of the World: Essays on Fiction, Narrative and Knowledge (with John Gibson and Luca Pocci; Routledge 2007), Kunst denken (with Alex Burri, mentis 2007) and several other volumes. 

Íngrid Vendrell Ferran teaches Philosophy at the Goethe Universität Frankfurt (Heisenberg-position). Her research interests are phenomenology, philosophy of mind, aesthetics and epistemology. Some of her publications include: Die Emotionen (Akademie 2008); Wahrheit, Wissen und Erkenntnis in der Literatur (ed. with Christoph Demmerling, De Gruyter 2014); Empathie im Film (ed. with Malte Hagener, Transcript 2017); and Die Vielfalt der Erkenntnis (Mentis 2018).

Introduction Wolfgang Huemer and Íngrid Vendrell Ferran Text		7
Beauty and Aesthetic Properties: Taking Inspiration from Kant Sonia Sedivy Abstract		25
Beauty and Rules:  Kant and Wittgenstein on the Cognitive  Relevance of Aesthetics Hanne Appelqvist Abstract		43
Challenging the Notion of Intelligible Beauty Elisabeth Schellekens Abstract		71
Non-Sensory Beauty and Meaning Qualia Maria Elisabeth Reicher Abstract		91
Beauty and the Agential Dimension  of the Judgment of Taste María José Alcaraz León Abstract		123
Beauty and Bell’s Aesthetic Emotion Catrin Misselhorn Abstract		145
Art, Beauty, and Criticism Noël Carroll Abstract		171
The Value of Art: On Meaning and Aesthetic  Experience in Difficult Modern Art Richard Eldridge Abstract		185
The Beauty of Doing: Remarks  on the Appreciation of Conceptual Art Davide Dal Sasso Abstract		209
The Case Against Beauty Otto Neumaier Abstract		243
An  Aesthetics of Insight John Gibson Abstract		277
Aesthetic Experience and the Experience of Poetry Peter Lamarque Abstract		307
The Beauty of Landscape Allen Carlson Abstract		331
The Virtue Analysis of Inner Beauty:  Inner Beauty as Moral, Eudaimonistic,  or Relational Virtueness  Lisa Katharin Schmalzried Abstract		353
Cosmetics and Makeup Stephen Davies Abstract		393
The Contributors to this Volume Texts		413
Abstracts		419
Index		427

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