Aesthetics: The Key Thinkers

This title gives a concise, but comprehensive introduction to the history of aesthetics, designed specifically to meet the needs of undergraduate students. "Aesthetics: The Key Thinkers" offers a comprehensive historical overview of the field of aesthetics. Sixteen specially commissioned essays introduce and explore the contributions of those philosophers who have shaped the subject, from its origins in the work of the ancient Greeks to contemporary developments in the 21st Century. This book reconstructs the history of aesthetics, clearly illustrating the most important attempts to address such crucial issues as the nature of aesthetic judgement, the status of art, and the place of the arts within society. It covers thinkers that include: Plato, Aristotle, the main Medieval thinkers, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Croce, Collingwood, Bell, Fry, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Dewey, Beardsley, Goodman, Wollheim, Danto, and Walton. This book concludes with a concise survey of contemporary developments within aesthetics, outlining the issues that are most relevant to current debates in the field. Ideal for undergraduate students, this book lays the necessary foundations for a complete and thorough understanding of this fascinating subject. "The Key Thinkers" series is aimed at undergraduate students and offers clear, concise and accessible edited guides to the key thinkers in each of the central topics in philosophy. Each book offers a comprehensive overview of the major thinkers who have contributed to the historical development of a key area of philosophy, providing a survey of their major works and the evolution of the central ideas in that area.