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The Aesthetic Mind: Philosophy and Psychology

Online ISBN:
9780191731815
Print ISBN:
9780199691517
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Aesthetic Mind: Philosophy and Psychology

Elisabeth Schellekens (ed.),
Elisabeth Schellekens
(ed.)
University of Durham
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Peter Goldie (ed.)
Peter Goldie
(ed.)
University of Manchester
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Published online:
19 January 2012
Published in print:
13 October 2011
Online ISBN:
9780191731815
Print ISBN:
9780199691517
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This collection of original essays from leading researchers across a wide range of disciplines engages with a number of issues concerning ‘the aesthetic mind’. It is the only collection which specifically targets the extent to which the empirical sciences can contribute to our philosophical understanding of the notions of the aesthetic and the artistic. The questions addressed include the following: Why do we engage with things aesthetically and why do we create art? Does art or aesthetic experience have a function or functions? Which characteristics distinguish aesthetic mental states? Which skills or abilities do we put to use when we engage aesthetically with an object and how does that compare with non-aesthetic experiences? What does our ability to create art and engage aesthetically with things tell us about what it is to be a human being? The collection is divided into seven parts: ‘The Aesthetic Mind’, ‘Emotion in Aesthetic Experience’, ‘Beauty and Universality’, Imagination and Make-Believe’, ‘Fiction and Empathy’, ‘Music, Dance and Expressivity’, and ‘Pictorial Representation’.

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