Aesthetics

Michel-Antoine Xhignesse is an Instructor of Philosophy at Capilano University, in North Vancouver, Canada.

• PrefacePart I: Art-Making1. Apelles’s Horses (Intentionality)2. Empty and Universal Fictions (Fictional Truth)3. The Paradox of Authenticity4. The Paradox of Creativity5. The Problem of Genius6. The Puzzle of Multiple Authorship7. The Puzzle of Multiple Endings8. The Revision Puzzle9. The Time Machine (Design)10. The Whale and the Driftwood (Artifactuality) Part II: Ontology11. Dinosaurs in the Jungle (Photographic Transparency)12. Faking Nature (Authenticity)13. Guernicas (Contextualism)14. Pot People, Basket Folk (Contextualism)15. Psychedelic Sounds (Definition of Music)16. Retitling Art (Titles)17. The Gallery of Red Squares (Defining Art)18. The Supercopier (Multiple Artworks)19. The Wrong Note Paradox20. Unperformable Music (Musical Ontology)Part III: Aesthetic Judgements21. Aesthetic Concept Zombies (Aesthetic Properties)22. The Jealous Husband (The Aesthetic Attitude)23. The Paradox of Good-Bad Art24. The Paradox of Gustatory Taste25. The Paradox of Junk Fiction26. The Paradox of Porn27. The Puzzle of Historical Criticism28. The Transmogrifier (Style)29. The Uniform World (Aesthetic Disagreement)30. Two Societies (Everyday Aesthetics)Part IV: Appreciation and Interpretation31. Pinny the Who? (Interpretation)32. The Paradox of Disgust33. The Paradox of Fiction34. The Paradox of Portraiture35. The Paradox of Tragedy36. The Problem of Museum Skepticism37. The Puzzle of Acquaintance38. The Puzzle of Depiction39. The Puzzle of Musical Profundity40. The St. Bernard’s Face (Music and Emotion)Part V: Ethics and Value41. The Paradox of Bad-Bad Art (Moralism/Immoralism)42. How the Zebra Lost Her Stripes (Environmental Aesthetics)43. The Burning Museum (Aesthetic Normativity)44. The Gamer’s Dilemma (Gaming Ethics)45. The Parable of the Pawn (Virtual Value)46. The Puzzle of Cultural Appropriation47. The Puzzle of Cultural Property48. The Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance49. The Puzzle of Moral Persuasion50. Utopia (Games)

“Xhignesse has a keen eye for how to pique the reader’s curiosity and is a succinct and even-handed surveyor of puzzles and their proposed resolutions. . . . Students are sure to respond to the vibrant prose and well chosen diet of issues from across aesthetics. . . . This is likely to make for a lively classroom and interesting term papers, and, whether or not instructors end up assigning this book, they will surely make use of it and find themselves cribbing Xhignesse’s punchy questions and concise summaries for their class discussion. It is a commendable achievement.” --Sam Cowling, Metascience