Values of Beauty Historical Essays in Aesthetics [Paperback]

This book discusses the context and content of aesthetics as they relate to philosophical history and imagination.Values of Beauty discusses major ideas and figures in the history of aesthetics from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. All of the essays emphasize the complexity rather than isolation of our aesthetic experience of both nature and art; and the interconnection of aesthetic values such as beauty and sublimity on the one hand, and prudential and moral values on the other. Guyer emphasizes the idea of the freedom of the imagination as the key to both artistic creation and aesthetic experience.Values of Beauty discusses major ideas and figures in the history of aesthetics from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. All of the essays emphasize the complexity rather than isolation of our aesthetic experience of both nature and art; and the interconnection of aesthetic values such as beauty and sublimity on the one hand, and prudential and moral values on the other. Guyer emphasizes the idea of the freedom of the imagination as the key to both artistic creation and aesthetic experience.Values of Beauty covers major ideas and figures in the history of aesthetics, from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. All of the essays emphasize the complexity, rather than isolation of our aesthetic experience of both nature and art. They also reveal the interconnection of aesthetic values, such as beauty and sublimity, as well as prudential and moral values. Paul Guyer emphasizes the idea of the freedom of the imagination as the key to both artistic creation and aesthetic experience.Part I. Mostly before Kant: 1. The origins of modern aesthetics: 171135; 2. The standard of taste and the 'Most Ardent Desire of Society'; Part II. Mostly Kant: 3. The harmony of the faculties revisited; 4. Beauty and utility in eighteenth-century aesthetics; 5. Freló)