Aesthetics and Nature

Glenn Parsons is Professor of Philosophy at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Aesthetics and Nature from an Analytic Perspective1. The Conceptual Background: Nature1.1 The end of Nature?1.2 Is Nature a Useful concept?1.3 Some Alternatives: Wilderness, Landscape, Environment 2. The Conceptual Background: Beauty and Aesthetic Value2.1 Beauty2.2 The Sublime, the Picturesque and the Aesthetic2.3 Two Questions About Aesthetic Value2.4 Two Accounts of Aesthetic Value 3. Imagination, Belief and Aesthetic Judgement3.1 From Ethics to Ice Cream3.2 Thought Contents3.3 Anything goes? A Relativist Approach3.4 Objections to the Relativist Approach4. Formalism4.1 Traditional Formalism4.2 Strengths of Formalism4.3 Quantification and Formalism in Empirical Landscape Assessment 4.4 Objections to Traditional Formalism 4.5 Zangwill’s Formalism5. Science and the Aesthetics of Nature5.1 Science and the nature critic5.2 Another Turn in the Taste for Landscape? Positive Aesthetics5.3 Objections to the science-based approach5.4 The Fusion Problem6. Pluralism6.1 A Modest Pluralism6.2 Robust Pluralism6.3 Problems for Robust Pluralism (two arguments redux)6.4 Modest Pluralism Again 7. Nature and the Aesthetics of Engagement 7.1 The Challenge to Disinterestedness7.2 An Engaged Aesthetics of Nature7.3 Problems for Berleant’s Engaged Aesthetic7.4 Engagement, Unity, and the Aesthetic8. Animals8.1 Appreciating Animals8.2 Normative Questions8.3 Are there ugly species? 9. Aesthetic Issues in Environmental Protection, Restoration and Rewilding9.1 Aesthetic Protection in Theory and Practice9.2 Two Issues for Aesthetic Protection 9.3 Aesthetic Protection, Ethics, and the Problem of Taste 9.4 Biodiversity and the Politics of Aesthetic Protection 9.5 Aesthetic Remediation, Restoration and Rewilding10. The Sublime, the Picturesque, and the Beautiful10.1 Rise and Fall of the Sublime10.2 Contemporary Theories of the Sublime10.3 Reappraising the Picturesque10.4 Beauty, Taste and Love of Place11. Nature in the Garden11.1 The Garden as Nature11.2 The Garden as Art11.3 Is Nature Essential to the Garden?11.4 Appreciating Gardens: Interaction, Achievement, Atmosphere12. Art In Nature12.1 The Ethics of Environmental Art: Four Questions 12.2 Is Environmental Art an Aesthetic Affront to Nature?12.3 Is the Effrontery Charge Justified?12.4 Is the Effrontery Charge Coherent?13. Nature Through Art: Mediated Appreciation13.1 Mediated Appreciation13.2 Two Problems for Mediated Appreciation13.3 Beyond Accuracy: Generative Mediation14. Epilogue: Aesthetics in the Anthropocene? Philosophical and Empirical ChallengesBibliographyIndex

Weaving together ideas from an impressively wide range of authors, this volume will be of remarkable value to newcomers and experts alike, across the Environmental Humanities. Glenn Parsons' writing is exceptionally clear and accessible, all while being precise and faithful to original sources. If there were only one book I could suggest on the topic, it would be this one.