Introduction to Aesthetics

George Dickie is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at University of Illinois, Chicago. He is the author of The Century of Taste (OUP, 1996), Aesthetics: A Critical Anthology, Second Edition (co-editor, 1989), Evaluating Art (1988), The Art Circle: A Theory of Art (1984), and Art and the Aesthetic (1974).

• PrefacePART 1 - An Historical Introduction to Analytic Aesthetics1.: Introductory Remarks2.: The Theory of Beauty - Plato to the 19th CenturyPlato - St. Thomas Aquinas - The Eighteenth Century: Taste and the Decline of Beauty - Shaftesbury - Hutcheson - Burke - Hume - Alison - Kant - Summary - The Nineteenth Century: The Birth of the Aesthetic - Schopenhauer: 3.: The Aesthetic Attitude in the 20th CenturyThe Aesthetic State: Psychical Distance - Aesthetic Awareness: Disinterested Attention - Aesthetic Perception: "Seeing As" - Summary and Conclusions: 4.: Metacriticism: Alternative to Aesthetic Attitude5.: The Theory of Art - Plato to the 19th CenturyIntroductory Remarks - Plato - Aristotle - The Nineteenth Century: New Directions - The Expression Theory of Art - What Is a Theory of Art?: 6.: 20th Century Theories of Art, 1914 to the 1950sA 20th Century Beauty Theory of Art: Clive Bell:A 20th Century Imitation Theory of Art: Suzanne Langer:A 20th Century Expressionist Theory of Art: R. G. Collingwood:Art as an Open Concept: Morris Weitz:PART II - Aesthetics in the 20th Century - 1960s to Present7.: A Change of Directions and New DevelopmentsA New Direction for the Experience of ArtA New Direction for the Theory of Art8.: The Institutional Theory of ArtThe Earlier Version - The Later Version: PART III - Four Problems in Aesthetics9.: Intentionalist Criticism10.: Symbolism in Art11.: Metaphor12.: ExpressionPART IV - The Evaluation of Art13.: 20th Century Theories of EvaluationPersonal Subjectivism - Intuitionism - Emotivism - Relativism - Critical Singularism: 14.: Monroe Beardsley's Instrumentalism15.: Nelson Goodman's Instrumentalism16.: Another Kind of InstrumentalismSummaryEpilogue

sharp writing, intelligent organization, and high standards of argumentation. Theodore Grayck, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Winter 99 (57:1)