OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

User login

Beauty: A Very Short Introduction [#262]
Beauty: A Very Short Introduction [#262]
¥1,969
(incl.tax)

We are currently not accepting online orders.

  • Examines the answers to key questions in aesthetics, such as: What is beauty? Why do we value it? Is beauty good?
  • Asks whether beauty is vanishing from our world
  • This is a strongly-argued counter to the notion that judgements of beauty are purely subjective and relative, and that we can learn little from art criticism and study
  • Looks at beauty in the visual arts, in music, architecture, nature, and literature
  • Argues that our experience of beauty is rationally founded, and that beauty is a real and universal value. Scruton shows how our sense of beauty has an indispensable part to play in the way we shape our world

   
Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference. 

In this Very Short Introduction the renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores the concept of beauty, asking what makes an object - either in art, in nature, or the human form - beautiful, and examining how we can compare differing judgements of beauty when it is evident all around us that our tastes vary so widely. Is there a right judgement to be made about beauty? Is it right to say there is more beauty in a classical temple than a concrete office block, more in a Rembrandt than in last year's Turner Prize winner? 

Forthright and thought-provoking, and as accessible as it is intellectually rigorous, this introduction to the philosophy of beauty draws conclusions that some may find controversial, but, as Scruton shows, help us to find greater sense of meaning in the beautiful objects that fill our lives.

Index: 

Preface
1: Judging beauty
2: Human beauty
3: Natural beauty
4: Everyday beauty
5: Artistic beauty
6: Taste and order
7: Art and Eros
8: The flight from beauty
9: Concluding thoughts
Notes and Further Reading

About the author: 

Roger Scruton, Research Professor, Institute for the Psychological Sciences, Arlington, Virginia
 
Roger Scruton is research Professor at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences based in Arlington, Virginia. His previous academic affiliations have been Professor of Aesthetics at Birkbeck College, London, and subsequently Professor of Philosophy and University Professor at Boston University. His published works range from academic philosophy, specialising in aesthetics, to fiction, and political and cultural commentary. They includeOn Hunting (1998), An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture (1998), Spinoza (1998), Perictione in Colophon (2000), and England: an Elegy (2000).

"Mouthwatering design-compact, colorful, sturdy. Can travel in one's pocket." - Walks of Art, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

Product details

ISBN : 9780199229758

Author: 
Roger Scruton
Pages
208 Pages
Format
Paperback
Size
111 x 174 mm
Pub date
Mar 2011
Series
Very Short Introductions
Customer reviews
0
(0)

You may also like

Customer reviews

0
0
0件

まだレビューはありません

The price listed on this page is the recommended retail price for Japan. When a discount is applied, the discounted price is indicated as “Discount price”. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Beauty: A Very Short Introduction [#262]

Beauty: A Very Short Introduction [#262]

Beauty: A Very Short Introduction [#262]