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PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHYTHE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR PHILOSOPHY IN PRACTICEwww.practical-philosophy.org.uk www.society-for-philosophy-in-practice.org |
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PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHYTHE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR PHILOSOPHY IN PRACTICEwww.practical-philosophy.org.uk www.society-for-philosophy-in-practice.org |
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Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Introducing Aesthetics
Hugh Bredin and Liberato Santoro-Brienza
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000.
pp.
226+xiv. ISBN 0-7486-1191-6 (pb). £14.95
Practical Philosophy (Book Reviews) March 2001 Volume Pages
Reviewed by: Trevor Curnow
This is an interesting and useful book in a somewhat neglected area of philosophy. It sets out to introduce not only, as its subtitle suggests, aesthetics, but also the history of aesthetics. The competition is relatively thin on both counts, but particularly so with regard to the latter. The authors roam over the entire history of western culture and a wide range of artistic media. Their treatment is, however, not merely descriptive but also argumentative, although they try not to let their own preferences and opinions intrude too disruptively or dogmatically on their material. The authors do adopt some contentious positions (for example, concerning the accessibility of the art of past ages), but it is not necessary to subscribe to them.
Because the brief of the book is so broad, it is bound to attract criticisms concerning selections, divisions and emphases. Should there be no mention of Ortega y Gasset at all. Should Plotinus appear in the medieval section? Is there enough on Croce, or too much on Aquinas? All of these are arguable, and will doubtless be argued.
One of the issues facing any introductory text concerns what prior knowledge may or may not be assumed on the part of the reader. Here there are some inconsistencies. In discussing architecture the authors feel the need to define 'pendentive' (and incorrectly, as it seems to me), while in the chapter on music a number of technical terms are employed without comment. More seriously, the book sometimes becomes a history of art rather than a history of aesthetics, and that is a dangerous indulgence in a work of this (no more than average) scale and (already substantial) scope. The temptation is obvious, but it should have been met with greater resistance. The fact that it was not is testimony to the importance attached in this book to the historical dimension of the subject.
Indeed, the emphasis of the book is so much on the historical, that the past is allowed to dictate its agenda to an overwhelming extent. There is, for example, a chapter on the theatre, but nothing on film. The only modern music discussed is that of the concert hall. If one of the aims of an introduction to aesthetics is getting people interested in aesthetics, then this book is unlikely to enjoy much success. By managing to promote an image of art which is largely elitist and remote, it will do little to persuade many of the importance of aesthetics. Those to whom it preaches will probably consist principally of the converted. It will be of most use to those who already have an interest in aesthetics and who want to find out more about the history of the subject. Such a purpose it serves well, although the inclusion of more explicit guidance on further reading would have helped it serve it better.
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