Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2nd edition)

摘要

Aesthetics is a field of study that is said to consist of two parts: "the philosophy of art and the philosophy of the aesthetic experience and character of objects and phenomena that are not art" (from The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Craig, 2005) (RR 2006/011), a useful desk reference tool). It takes us into things like beauty and perception, emotion and tragedy and truth, and draws in art and architecture, music and literature and much else. Enough one would think for the field to stand on its own. Yet, it is often regarded as "art within philosophy", as a specialism or subset of ideas and critical approaches which, without a philosophical mind-set and context, lack value and coherence.