Imitation and Society

Tom Huhn teaches aesthetics and philosophy at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1.Burke and the Ambitions of TastePrologueI. Introducing TasteII. Delight, or the Labor Theory of PleasureIII. Sensation and SensibilityIV. Shaftesbury and the “Charm of Confederation”V. SympathyVI. AmbitionVII. Spectatorship2.Hogarth and the Lineage of TastePrologueI. The Epistemology of LinesII. The Eye for PleasureIII. Dance and the Movement from Vision to ImaginationIV. Eye and Mind3.Kant and the Pleasures of TastePrologueI. Activating SensibilityII. Determining Reflective JudgmentIII. Phantom Sensations and Mistaken SubjectsIV. Representative PleasuresV. Opaque PleasuresConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

“The argument about Burke’s Enquiry is brilliant and original. The idea of treating aesthetics through mimesis rather than versions of affect (that is, treating aesthetic theory as if it were a poetics) is original, and I find Huhn’s argument convincing and illuminating. Especially interesting is his explication via mimesis of the terms ‘imagination’ and ‘judgment.'. . . Burke’s theory is a heavily invested area and Huhn says something original and important. Similarly, Huhn analyses Hogarth’s discourse in his Analysis of Beauty as if it were a philosophical discourse. This is an extremely useful thing to do—and it has not even remotely been done. . . . He has clarified points for me, and I’ve been studying Hogarth for forty years. . . . By treating his Analysis seriously as a philosophical text, Huhn has conferred a dignity on Hogarth’s thought that I find gratifying—and long overdue. He contributes to the growing sense we have of Hogarth’s being one of the central figures in English culture of the eighteenth century. . . . I can testify that Huhn’s Burke and Hogarth chapters are both knowledgeable and extremely intelligent.”—Ronald Paulsen, The Johns Hopkins University