Stylistics

Richard Dien Winfield is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Georgia. He is the author of Freedom and Modernity and Reason and Justice, both published by SUNY Press, and Systematic Aesthetics; Law in Civil Society; Overcoming Foundations: Studies in Systematic Philosophy; and The Just Economy.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction 1. The Problem of Artistic Style: Conceiving the Particular Forms of Art Controversies in Moving Beyond the Universal Features of ArtThe Artforms as Minimal Particularizations of ArtThe Ordering of the ArtformsThe Hierarchy of Artforms and the End of ArtThe Logical Differentiation of the Forms of ArtThe Basic Taxonomy of the Symbolic, Classical, and Romantic Forms of Art 2. The Symbolic Form of Art Preliminary Difficulties in Characterizing the Symbolic Form of ArtThe Role of the Symbol in Symbolic ArtThe Content of Symbolic Art The Construal of the Divine in Symbolic ArtThe Construal of Conduct in Symbolic Art The External Reality, Creation, and Reception of Symbolic ArtThe Primacy of Symbolic ArtThe Differentiation of Types of Symbolic ArtThe Completeness of the Varieties of Symbolic Art 3. The Classical Form of Art Preliminary Controversies in Conceiving Classical ArtIs the Symbolic Artform the Historical and Conceptual Prerequisite of Classical Art?The Meaning and Shape of the Classical FormHegel's Suspect Limitations upon the Classical FormThe Classical Construal of the Divine and ConductThe External Reality, Creation, and Reception of Classical ArtThe Dissolution of Classical Art 4. The Romantic Form of Art The Aesthetic Challenge of Modernity and the Problematic of Romantic ArtThe Deduction of Romantic ArtThe Configuration of Content in Romantic ArtThe Romantic Contrual of Religious RepresentationThe Romantic Contrual of Conduct Romantic Options in A World of Revolutionary ChallengeRomantic Options in A Post-Revolutionary World The Formal Independence of Romatic CharacterRealism, Irony, and Non-Objectivism: The End of Romantic ArtThe Production and Reception of Romantic ArtRomanticism and the End of Art 5. The Challenge of Conceiving the Individual Arts Prerequisites for a Philosophical Theory of The Individual ArtsIndividuating the Arts by Physical MediaKant's Division by Analogy to SpeechHegel's Division by Appeal to the ArtformsThe Prospects for a Systematic Division of the Arts Notes Index

"Winfield's assessment of Hegel's views is accurate and perceptive. He retains that which is helpful, and gives rigorously logical reasons for abandoning outmoded, contingent judgments." — The Owl of Minerva"The major strength of Winfield's book comes from his ambition to offer a distinctive view of philosophical aesthetics as developed from Hegel's own treatment of art. He defends a position which claims to avoid transcendental aesthetics on the one hand, and what Winfield calls metaphysical aesthetics on the other. His systematic rethinking of the aesthetic is marked by genuine philosophical seriousness. He constructively contributes to reformulating the Hegelian way of thinking. This book extends the range of Winfield's work as a systematic thinker." — William Desmond, Loyola College