Philosophy: aesthetics Books

Book Synopsis"The Dehumanization of Art and Other Essays on Art, Culture and Literature".

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Book SynopsisHave we become beauty-blind? This title not only defends beauty from the political arguments against it but also argues that beauty does indeed press us toward a greater concern for justice. It offers a manifesto for the revival of beauty in our intellectual work as well as our homes, museums, and classrooms.Trade Review"Ms. Scarry's writing is evocative and lively... Her book is a bracing antidote to the glum puritanism of many opponents of beauty, and it makes some insightful observations about how beauty figures in our perceptual, emotional and moral lives."--Colin McGinn, The Wall Street Journal "She begins her defense of aesthetic pleasure with musings on the nature of beauty. Beauty begets, she argues. It constantly provokes copies of itself. That replication is not only in art, for example, but also in perception, as in the desire to continue beholding as long as possible. Beauty's link with truth requires no belief in an immortal realm. 'The beautiful, almost without any effort of our own, acquaints us with the mental event of conviction,' she says. That mental state is so pleasurable 'that ever afterwards one is willing to labor, struggle, wrestle with the world to locate enduring sources of conviction-to locate what is true.' The heightened perception that comes with beauty's life-affirming capacity to awaken us to our world is part of what alerts us to injustice, she writes."--Nina Ayoub, Chronicle of Higher Education Scarry persuades that there is an analogy between the recognition of beautyand the recognition of just or fair social arrangements ... [She]...does not preach and ... her short book [is] light and allusive and gentle and unpolemical [in] style... "--Stuart Hampshire, The New York Review of Books "This short book could change your life... Beauty makes us better, more honest, more judicious, more humble, nicer people. And dare I say, this little book, taken to heart, will do the same."--Tom D'Evelyn, The Providence Sunday Journal "Scarry makes a fascinating case that seeing beauty reminds us of our own marginality, and therefore our equalness to other people. And she very skillfully defies traditional political criticisms of beauty."--Meredith Petrin, Boston Review "Full of striking observations about beauty in and beyond the arts."--Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle "In the tradition of 19th-century aesthetics, On Beauty and Being Just describes, evokes and manifests the loving attention that beautiful objects provoke... [It] is fresh, eccentric and uncompromising."--Alexander Nehamas, London Review of Books "Any sophisticated reader not mummified beneath protective layers of irony will find this book not only pleasant to hold in the hand, but valuable to hold in the mind."--Paul J. Johnson, Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsPART ONE On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 PART TWO On Beauty and Being Fair 55 NOTES 125 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 133

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Book SynopsisArgues that Immanuel Kant's entire philosophy - including his moral philosophy, aesthetics, and teleology, as well as his metaphysics - can fruitfully be read as an engagement with David Hume. This book describe and assesses Hume's influence throughout Kant's philosophy. It shows where Kant agrees or disagrees with Hume.Trade Review"In detail, and with great clarity and fairness, Guyer compares [Kant's and Hume's] respective treatments of scepticism, of the major concepts of causation, objects, and the self, of practical philosophy and of the philosophy of taste. Guyer shows that the match is by no means as one-sided as the usual view maintains."--Simon Blackburn, Times Higher Education "Guyer is noted for his Kant scholarship ... The present book, whose subtitle best expresses its content, is a collection of five previously published essays, somewhat reworked, which range over themes that occupied both Kant and Hume. This is done with magisterial competence."--M.A. Bertman, Choice "Guyer's book provides a masterful reconstruction of the systematic ambition of Kant's critical philosophy and of the third Critique in particular. In addition, he underlines the essential openness and modesty of the Kantian system that is due to Kant's unwavering insistence on the limits of the human powers of cognition--a point that was not heeded by his immediate successors and is often only poorly understood even today."--Peter Gilgen, MonatshefteTable of ContentsCredits vii Sources and Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1: Common Sense and the Varieties of Skepticism 23 CHAPTER 2: Causation 71 CHAPTER 3: Cause, Object, and Self 124 CHAPTER 4: Reason, Desire, and Action 161 CHAPTER 5: Systematicity, Taste, and Purpose 198 Bibliography 255 Index 263

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Book SynopsisFiction, far from being the opposite of truth, is wholly bent on finding it out, and writing novels is a way to know the real world as objectively as possible. This book develops this idea through readings of works by Flaubert, James, and Nabokov.Trade Review"If her Readings at the Edge of Literature did not reveal Jehlen as a formidable critic, this study of five novels should. The book defies easy categorization as it probes and interrogates reality and its truths."--Choice "Five Fictions in Search of Truth is wise to attend to writers' confrontations with reality, since such moments, once give a form as style, afford readers an unequaled perspective on truths that never quite seem to be overcome by prevailing skepticism and disbelief."--Larry T. Shillock, Bloomsbury ReviewTable of ContentsPROLOGUE: A Real Madeleine Is a Work of Art 1 CHAPTER ONE: Salammbo: Three Rough Stones beneath a Rainy Sky 13 CHAPTER TWO: The Sacred Fount: The Case of the Man Who Suddenly Grew Smart 47 CHAPTER THREE: The Ambassadors: What He Saw Was Exactly the Right Thing 71 CHAPTER FOUR: Lolita: A Beautiful, Banal, Eden-Red Apple 103 CHAPTER FIVE: A Simple Heart: Felicite and the Holy Parrot 133 Acknowledgments 145 Notes 147 Index 167

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Book SynopsisBlack, favorite color of priests and penitents, artists and ascetics, fashion designers and fascists, has always stood for powerfully opposed ideas: authority and humility and sin and holiness. This book discusses the social history of the color black in Europe. It is suitable for those interested in the history of fashion, art, media, or design.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2009 Bronze Medal in Fine Art, Independent Publisher Book Awards One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2009 "Who would have thought the history of a single color could be so fascinating? Black: The History of a Color, by Michel Pastoureau, (Princeton University Press, $35) proceeds chronologically from cave painting to modern fashion and focuses on mythology, heraldry, religion, science and painting along the way. The author, a historian at the Sorbonne, narrates developments in the material, aesthetic and sociological dimensions of the color black with infectious, wide-ranging curiosity and easy-going erudition. After this you'll want to read his previous book, from the same publisher, Blue: The History of a Color."--Ken Johnson, New York Times Praise for Michel Pastoureau's Blue: "Pastoureau's text moves us through one fascinating area of activity after another... The jacket, cover and end-papers of this luscious book are appropriately blue; its double-columned text breathes easily in the space of its pages; it is so well sewn it opens flat at any place; and fascinating, aptly chosen color plates, not confined to the title color, will please even those eyes denied the good luck of being blue."--William H. Gass, author of Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry, writing in the Los Angeles Times Book Review "This handsome, strikingly designed, richly illustrated book traces the history of the color black in Europe... Like his earlier Blue, this book is well researched, skillfully written, and a pleasure to read."--R. M. Davis, Choice "Michael Pastoureau, in Black: The History of a Color, sees the rise of puritanism and Protestantism as the war of the colours--a war against vivid colour that black usually won... He has a terrific story to tell, and a multitude of gorgeous images to help tell it."--Robert Fulford, The National Post "Black is a penetrating, erudite, thoughtfully illustrated cultural history of a color, by Michel Pastoureau, an author whose earlier work has included--surprise, surprise--Blue."--Nicholas A. Basbanes, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette "French popular art historian Pastoureau here tackles one of the most complex and interesting colours, the favourite of 'priests and penitents, artists and ascetics, fashion designers and fascists.' This social history is lavishly illustrated with paintings, movie stills, photo portraits and fashion shoots."--The Globe & Mail "Until I came upon Michel Pastoureau's 2000 book Blue: The History of a Color it had never occurred to me colors had a history. Turns out they do, and tracking the significance first of blue, now black, provides a satisfyingly fresh angle of approach to the past."--Frtiz Lanham, The Houston Chronicle "What is interesting in sociological histories like Pastoureau's is their revelations about how cultural attitudes change. Black's connection with death began as early as ancient Egypt, when people left black stones on funeral pyres, not in a ghoulish way but as a symbol of rebirth (the Egyptian death divinity, Anubis, was painted black)... But this book will have you seeing black in more shades than you imagined."--Victor Swoboda, The Montreal Gazette "The author of more than a dozen art history books, Pastoureau's work is accessible, generous and witty. What's more, like all good illustrated books, this one is has more than 150 pictures in support of its superb text."--Marc Horton, The Edmonton Journal "Now Princeton University Press has published a social history of this most allusive of hues, Black: The History of a Color, by Michel Pastoureau, a French scholar and author of a similarly titled history of the color blue. Both are lavishly illustrated coffee table books that follow their colors down the time line of European history."--John Zeaman, Design NJ Magazine "This erudite and elegantly written exploration of the history of black charts its changing symbolism and shades of meaning as a colour of death and rebirth, of religious authority and evil, of luxury and poverty."--Fiona Capp, The Age (Australia) "Pastoureau combines a charming, conversational tone with a haughtiness I found entirely endearing. A director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes at the Sorbonne in Paris, he writes from a position of professorial confidence. He has conducted extensive research into the history of colour for a quarter century and his aim is to correct misapprehensions and banish ignorance. His style is not to inquire, explore or interrogate, in the fashion of academic studies today. It is to impart knowledge."--Sebastian Smee, The Australian "As the handsomely produced book demonstrates, black is the colour of the pigment used to draw the great bull of Lascaux, of evil, the devil, funerals, the fecundity of the Earth, bears, crows, hell, half the pieces on a chess board, Satan, heretics and priests alike, mysterious cats and, in the 12th century, the mantle of Mary, the mother of Jesus."--Sydney Morning Herald "[T]his book ... reads quite naturally as English ... and it has something worthwhile to say in a style that is informative rather than aimed mostly at enhancing the reputation of the writer among his academic peers... There is much valuable information about the history of dying in different periods and the fashionability of the color black among the nobility and upper classes (later the wealthy merchant class) of Europe."--Colin Blogs Praise for Michel Pastoureau's Blue: "A generous, gorgeous book full of nearly 100 historical and artistic plates, all illustrating the meaning and role of the color blue in Western history... Pastoureau has created something rare: a coffee table book that is also a good read. And not just a good read, but a compelling read."--Brian Bouldrey, Chicago TribuneTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION

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Book SynopsisRecovers the lost social, and literary history of the belief that the beauty of the environment in which one is raised influences or even determines one's fate. This title shows that English-language writing of the period was informed in crucial but previously unrecognized ways by the possibility that environments might produce better people.Trade Review"[Fateful Beauty] should broaden conceptions about the engineering of ethics in childhood and adolescence. Ideally, it will inspire scholars to look to less obvious sources than the discourse of development for how literature enables (and is enabled by) the construction of the morally treacherous preadult years."--Kirk Curnutt, Journal of American History "The inexhaustibility of aesthetic environments--inattentions waiting to happen--admittedly is reflected in the exhaustiveness of Fateful Beauty's archive. Mao's local textual analyses are both animating and fastidious."--Michael D. Snediker, Modernism/Modernity "[A]mong the many rich contributions of the book is the way it makes visible an intellectual genealogy for contemporary panic about childhood sexuality."--Kevin Ohi, Victorian Studies "Mao's consideration of aesthetics as a significant aspect in literary naturalism allows for a refreshingly unique consideration of Dreiser along with such significant literary figures as James Joyce, Rebecca West, and W. H. Auden. As a result, he has made an important contribution to the field that will surely inspire deeper examinations in the coming years."--Michael Shaw, Studies in American NaturalismTable of ContentsPREFACE ix INTRODUCTION: Talking about Beauty 1 CHAPTER ONE: Stealthy Environments 18 Guarded Moments 18 Significant Surroundings 35 The Unconscious before Freud 45 Secrets of the Aesthetic 56 CHAPTER TWO: Aestheticism's Environments 66 Walter Pater and the Child in the House 66 Oscar Wilde and the Making of the Soul 81 Beauty and Freedom 101 CHAPTER THREE: Aesthetics of Acuteness 109 Aestheticism, Naturalism, Pater, Zola, Joyce, Dreiser 109 Chemical Action Set Up in the Soul 115 Why Integritas 129 CHAPTER FOUR: Tropisms of Longing 139 Compulsions of the Body 139 Insidious Beauty 160 Onward, Onward 166 CHAPTER FIVE: Great House and Super-Cortex 177 West's Ancestral Enclosures 177 Excitatory Complexes 193 Cultivating Treason 203 CHAPTER SIX: Growing Up Awry 216 Auden's Hothouse Plants 216 Evolution and Individuation 227 Showing Off, Setting Off 244 EPILOGUE 256 NOTES 267 REFERENCES 289 INDEX 307

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Book Synopsis"First published in French language by Editions du Seuil, Paris, under the title Vert, Histoire d'une couleur." c2013--Page facing title page.Trade ReviewOne of The Guardian's Best Books of 2014 One of TheAustralian.com's "In the Good Books" 2014 One of The Globe and Mail 75 Book Ideas for Christmas 2014 "[C]omprehensive and lavishly illustrated."---Natalie Angier, New York Times "[S]umptuously illustrated... These are books to look at, but they are also books to read... Individual colors find their being only in relation to each other, and their cultural force depends on the particular instance of their use. They have no separate life or essential meaning. They have been made to mean, and in these volumes that human endeavor has found its historian."--Michael Gorra, New York Review of Books "Pastoureau's engaging cultural history of the color green tackles art history and color theory... With the look and feel of an artbook, this book holds equal amounts of substance of in the text... His anecdotes are insightful, the references occasionally delightfully esoteric... [H]e gives this substantial discussion further contemporary relevance."--Publishers Weekly "Beautifully illustrated."--Daily Mail "From the ample green gown in Jan van Eyck's painting "The Arnolfini Wedding" to the chartreuse and shamrock in Paolo Veronese's work, from Paul Cezanne's apples to Kees van Dongen's Fauvist use of mint and jungle greens, there's much to sink your eyes into."--Mary Louise Schumacher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "As this beautifully illustrated work shows, the 'uneasiness' of being green is what makes its story so interesting."--Fiona Capp, Sydney Morning Herald "[C]easelessly fascinating and erudite."--Michael Glover, Independent "We absolutely loved this book and we didn't merely read it, we read it twice... Colors are not just colors: they have a history and we can't imagine it ever being superseded by anything more than what Michel Pastoureau has accomplished in his monumental work, Green. Designers of all ilks everywhere need to read this book, and the prior colors (Blue and Black) and future colors he comes out with as well. The thought process, planning and impeccable research that must have gone into this book is prodigious... [T]hough Kermit said it's not easy being green, reading this book is an easy decision! ... This is a hefty tome that lends credence to the academic side of fashion theory... Pastoureau has provided us with a tour de force erudite approach to color... [P]ut it on your Christmas gift list for anyone in the fashion or art world. It's a must to own, and so much fun as a read. Academically speaking, it's popular culture at its best... Green is highly recommended by Whom You Know!"--Whom You Know "[Pastoureau's] pleasantly rambling illustrated narrative charts the changing place of green in Western thought, art and life, from prehistory to the present day."--Caroline Bugler, World of Interiors "[S]prightly... Green is a dash through domains and contexts as varied yet related as optics, clothing manufacture, vexillology, literature, color lexicons, and the history of painting... The point, Pastoureau emphasizes, is that green is, among the colors, exquisitely unstable--both in color theory and in real-life manufacture... Pastoureau is fascinating in describing the long decline of green in the period just before the Age of Revolution."--Eric Banks, Chronicle Review "Michel Pastoureau's Green: The History of a Color is an interesting look at how this sometimes forgotten hue has been perceived in art, fashion, and culture. Beautiful art and a thorough historical survey make this book an irresistible read."--Traditional Home "It ain't easy being ... a book about the colour green. Pastoureau shows us what green has signified at various points in various cultures, and the book illuminates the journey with its bright design."--Globe and Mail "Matching historical detail to artistic and cultural works of art, Pastoureau demonstrates that green richly deserves its place in both the bygone and the contemporary palette."--Lara Killian, PopMatters "In Green: The History of a Color, Michel Pastoureau shows all of the possibilities in just one band of the spectrum... Pastoureau's approach is elegant and revelatory... Green's text is choreographed with accompanying artwork to produce a skillfully designed embarrassment of riches. Clearly, one or two sumptuary laws are being violated. John Calvin is rotating in his grave with enough energy to create prop wash. The paper has heft but not weight. The cover reminds us that we are in a High Age of dust jacket design (the hard cover underneath is no poor relative, either). Text, art, design, materials: a book's book. Open it on plane or train and catch the envious spark--green, of course--in your neighbor's eye."--Peter Lewis, Barnes and Noble Review "A charming study, filled with numerous photos and illustrations. This book will be of great interest to those fascinated by history, culture, and design."--Library Journal "Taking great care not to project present-day definitions, classifications, and conceptions of color onto the past, he follows green's history from early negative associations and its notoriously fugitive pigments to its evolved status as the color of money, fecundity, nature, and environmental concerns... As a companion volume to the author's previous titles, Blue and Black, or as a stand-alone work, this highly anecdotal and beautifully written book belongs in the collection of every library."--Choice "[A] splendid work, vastly informative and beautifully produced... I once toyed with the idea of writing a book on the theme myself and must confess that Pastoureau's book is immeasurably superior to the one I had planned. If only there were a color that signified envy."--Kevin Jackson, Literary Review "Pastoureau's lifetime of research and consideration provide the strong historical and theoretical basis of this excellent study. It is fascinating to recognize that something as seemingly constant as a color is constantly changing, both in actual fact and in how we interpret it. For anyone interested in becoming more familiar with the colors that beautify and enrich our lives, or for anyone interested in thumbing through a richly illustrated, fantastically intelligent book, Green: The History of a Color, is intensely rewarding."--Stephan Delbos, Body Praise for the French edition:"A beautiful presentation of a long-unloved color."--Daphne Betard, Beaux-Arts Praise for the French edition:"A beautiful book that opens the windows wide."--Marie Chaudey, La VieTable of ContentsIntroduction 7 An uncertain color (From the beginning to the year 1000) 11 Did the Greeks see green? 14 Green among the Romans 20 The emerald and the leek 26 Hippodrome green 31 The silences of the Bible and the church fathers 36 A middle color 40 Islamic green 46 A courtly color (11th-14th centuries) 51 The beauty of green 54 A place for green: the orchard 58 A time for green: the spring 65 Youth, love, and hope 71 A chivalrous color 78 A green hero: Tristan 83 A dangerous color (14th-16th centuries) 87 Satan's green bestiary 90 From green to greenish 97 The green knight 103 The dyer's vats 112 "Gay green" and "lost green" 118 Heraldic green 125 The colors of the poet 129 A secondary color (16th-19th centuries) 135 Protestant morals 138 The green of painters 142 New knowledge, new classifications 152 Alceste's ribbons and the green of the theater 155 Superstitions and fairy tales 159 Green in the age of the enlightenment 167 A romantic color? 172 A soothing color (19th-21st centuries) 179 A fashionable color 182 Return to the palette 186 Chevreul and the scientists did not like green 193 Neither did Kandinsky or the Bauhaus 200 Green in everyday life 205 Nature in the heart of the cities 209 Green today 217 Acknowledgments 223 Notes 224 Bibliography 235 Photography credits 240

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"If her Readings at the Edge of Literature did not reveal Jehlen as a formidable critic, this study of five novels should. The book defies easy categorization as it probes and interrogates reality and its truths."--Choice "Five Fictions in Search of Truth is wise to attend to writers' confrontations with reality, since such moments, once give a form as style, afford readers an unequaled perspective on truths that never quite seem to be overcome by prevailing skepticism and disbelief."--Larry T. Shillock, Bloomsbury ReviewTable of ContentsPROLOGUE: A Real Madeleine Is a Work of Art 1 CHAPTER ONE: Salammbo: Three Rough Stones beneath a Rainy Sky 13 CHAPTER TWO: The Sacred Fount: The Case of the Man Who Suddenly Grew Smart 47 CHAPTER THREE: The Ambassadors: What He Saw Was Exactly the Right Thing 71 CHAPTER FOUR: Lolita: A Beautiful, Banal, Eden-Red Apple 103 CHAPTER FIVE: A Simple Heart: Felicite and the Holy Parrot 133 Acknowledgments 145 Notes 147 Index 167

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Book SynopsisTranslation of: Rouge: histoire d'une couleur.Trade Review"Love, oh love, oh bloody love! So intense, so beautiful, so treacherous--so red... The new book Red: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau ... considers red in all its manifold guises. A richly and imaginatively illustrated survey filled with history, lore, religion, science, cosmetics, archaeology, medicine, alchemy, superstition, magic, linguistics, and even recipes for pigments, the book ambitiously traverses the centuries from prehistoric times to the present."--Barbara A. MacAdam, ARTnews "Pastoureau is the world's most distinguished and influential historian of colour, and ... his life's work on the symbolism of the spectrum is one of the great humane projects of our day."--Kevin Jackson, Literary Review "Pastoureau ... deftly weaves a tapestry that takes in not just the history of Western art, but also etymology, fairy tales and even the origins of modern road signage in heraldry. There can be no doubting his passion."--Stephen Patience, World of Interiors "Red is the color of lovers, blood, and anguish, and often signifies intensity. It is no doubt one of the most important colors in our history. Michel Pastoureau examines its significance through a slew of analytical essays and photographs that reveal the complex and, at times, controversial nature of the color and its relation to other hues."--Metropolis "Gorgeous... [A] splendid book, beautiful to look at and fascinating to read."--Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe "Does the warning red of our stop signs burble up from the color's association with medieval morality? Does the emergence of red as an ideological identity in right-wing American politics have some echo of the color's use as a symbol of power, such as the red cloak of Charlemagne and the Phrygian cap of the French Revolution? Michel Pastoureau's Red: The History of a Color, recently released by Princeton University Press, is a concise biography of the complex symbolism and perception of this hue of blood and fire."--Allison Meier, Hyperallergic "Beautifully and imaginatively illustrated ... Red is less a theory than a very readable compendium of fascinating facts... Red contains more than enough engrossing diversions that act like a traffic light and bring you to a stop."--Michael Prodger, The Times "Superb."--Vanity Fair "A wonderful book."--Le Figaro Magazine "A heady story of colors."--Telerama "An exciting cultural journey through the color red."--La vie "A rich and exciting story, a transversal approach, accessible to all."--Le Journal des Arts "A captivating human, sociological and spiritual history."--Connaissance des ArtsTable of ContentsIntroduction 7 The First Color (From Earliest Times To The End Of Antiquity) 12 The First Palettes 16 Fire and Blood 22 With Pliny among the Painters 30 Dyeing in Red 37 Roman Purple 40 Red in Everyday Life 44 Evidence from the Lexicon 50 The Favorite Color (Sixth To Fourteenth Centuries) 54 The Four Reds of the Church Fathers 58 The Blood of Christ 64 The Red of Power 69 The First Color of Heraldry 74 Love, Glory, and Beauty 80 Blue versus Red 86 The Wardrobes of Beautiful Florentine Ladies 90 A Controversial Color(Fourteenth To Seventeenth Centuries) 94 In the Flames of Hell 98 Judas, the Redhead 102 Hatred of Red 108 The Red of Painters 116 A Primary Color 126 Fabric and Clothing 130 Little Red Riding Hood 135 A Dangerous Color? (Eighteenth To Twenty-First Centuries) 140 On the Margins of Red: Pink 144 Makeup and Society Life 152 Red Caps and Flags: In the Midst of the Revolution 163 A Political Color 167 Emblems and Signals 176 Red for the Present Day 181 Notes 195 Bibliography 209 Photography Credits214 Acknowledgments 216

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of the 2007 Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers "Mr. Nehamas sets about reclaiming something of beauty's lost meaning by showing how it is connected to our happiness... That ... a work could infuriate one age and become an icon to the next fascinates Mr. Nehamas, who is drawn to works where our aesthetic and moral obligations come into conflict... Mr. Nehamas displays an admirable clarity of thought and language... [W]e can enjoy this book as we might the conversation of a spirited and quirky friend whose most irritating pronouncements are the ones we find ourselves mulling over, with some surprise, a week or two later."--Michael J. Lewis, Wall Street Journal "Alexander Nehamas seeks to reestablish the connections among art, beauty and desire and to show that the values of art are critical."--Publishers Weekly "[A] marvelous book...Nehamas sets out to retrieve beauty on behalf of all those who still use the word 'beautiful' with everyday pleasure: of a child, a landscape, a vase of flowers, an automobile. He does so in a tone of easy familiarity and enviable gracefulness; this is the philosopher not as blunt pragmatist, like the great Richard Rorty, nor as dour sceptic like W. V. Quine, but as winning and witty guide, and genial companion."--Mike Hulme, Times Higher Education Supplement "A wonderful, personal, and philosophic essay concerned with the restoration of beauty's place in art ... a rich conversation of ideas and feelings."--Reamy Jansen, Bloomsbury Review "Because our most meaningful encounters with beauty unfold over time, we can only ever say in retrospect that a beautiful object has not made our lives--or our culture--better... Beauty is only ever that promise: There is no a priori judgment that might reveal what will prove evanescent and what sustaining... In Mr. Nehamas's vision, the possibility of beauty is well worth the price of uncertainty."--Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New York Sun "[A] gracious and insightful book... The best parts of the book, which deal with the intimate love of beauty, are gloriously intelligent without being at all difficult and wise without being pompous."--John Armstrong, Sydney Morning Herald "Nehamas ... thinks that beauty has been too narrowly defined and that both the pro-beauty camp and the anti-beauty camp have painted us into a tight corner. Only a Promise of Happiness is his attempt to free us from the enclosure... Nehamas feels that beauty deserves a second chance because he thinks that the war on beauty has restricted what we can hope to expect from both art and life... [A] sane and provocative book."--Christopher Benfey, Slate.com "The power of beauty, its call to our love and its capacity to move us, is the focus of Only a Promise of Happiness, a new and very welcome book by Princeton philosopher Alexander Nehamas."--John Armstrong, The Australian "[Nehamas] writes with philosophical depth and great clarity and grace. His thoughts are lively and provocative, and he argues that the question of beauty (what is beautiful to me might not be beautiful to you) and the value of art are not rarefied topics, but part of the fabric of our everyday lives."--Nancy Tousley, Calgary Herald "Nehamas' language itself is fascinating, often giving rise to thoughts that in themselves are worth contemplating."--Regis Schilken, Blog Critics Magazine "Every practicing art critic could benefit from reading Nehamas's feeling account. But this shouldn't keep anyone whose curiosity is aroused by the title from picking up this engaging book. Nehamas ... writes with philosophical depth and great clarity and grace. His thoughts are lively and provocative, and he argues that the question of beauty (what is beautiful to me might not be beautiful to you) and the value of art are not rarefied topics, but part of the fabric of our everyday lives."--Nancy Tousley, Calgary Herald "If we are to take beauty seriously, Nehamas argues, we have to admit that it is impossible to really understand it without also understanding love... Nehamas has done us the service of returning the question of beauty to the center of humanistic attention. Only a Promise of Happiness raises important questions about the relationship between knowing and loving."--Joseph Phelan, Weekly Standard "This book contains material for constructive discussion and may even prompt some of us to reconsider the role beauty could or should play not only in the realm of art but in other aspects of our lives."--Giles Auty, The Australian "Nehamas, who wrote important studies on Plato and Nietzsche, is one of the most brilliant, amazing and amusing philosophers of our day. Though many other thinkers surely are as important as he, few rival his elegance, for he cultivates these almost forgotten qualities among scholars: writing well and wit. From its extrinsic features to the inmost convictions of its author, Only a Promise of Happiness is a notable book."--Jose Baracat Jr., Consciousness, Literature and the Arts "Nehamas's argument about beauty in art is beautiful, in the very sense intended by the argument itself."--Carolyn Wilde, Modernism/ModernityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xiii CHAPTER I: Plato or Schopenhauer? 1 A Feature of Appearance? 13 Modernist Voices 22 Modernist Appropriations 30 CHAPTER II: Criticism and Value 36 Th e Role of Reviewing 44 Beauty, Love, Friendship 53 Beauty, Attractiveness, Evolution 63 CHAPTER III: Art, Beauty, Desire 72 Beauty, Community, Universality 78 Uniformity, Style, Distinction 84 Aesthetics, Directness, Individuality 91 CHAPTER IV: Love and Death in Venice 102 Manet's Olympia 105 CHAPTER Interpretation, Depth, Breadth 120 CHAPTER Interpretation, Beauty, Goodness 126 Beauty, Uncertainty, Happiness 131 Notes 139 Permissions 169 Index 179

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"As Hyde eloquently demonstrates in a compelling trajectory that arcs from Stonehenge to modern London, ugliness is more than a physical trait or quality assigned to an object. It has acted as a site and catalyst for debate on broader social circumstances."---Catherine Slessor, The Guardian"This book is a welcome break from good taste. . . . If you have ever wondered why a certain building seems ugly, this book will help you understand why you feel that way."---Lucy Watson, Financial Times"Hyde’s book confronts ugliness head on, using it as a way to interrogate British architectural discourse. . . . [His] research on the individual case studies is impeccable."---Richard J. Williams, Times Higher Education"The great achievement of this book is to show that, even if the language and opinions about taste change, debates about architecture have always had some common features. They are never just about buildings."---William Whyte, Church Times"Discussions such as those effectively summarised in Ugliness and Judgement are so instructive when we evaluate how to apply concepts of beauty and ugliness in architectural debates."---Alexander Adams, Salisbury Review"A fascinating book. In taking as a point of departure the limitations of aesthetics, Hyde invites readers to understand the assessment of aesthetic failure as a wedge that pries open conversations about inadequate, unresolved, or unsatisfying social and legal arrangements. Ugliness, in his telling, points to gaps in social, regulatory, urban, and institutional fabrics. The author implies that the value of listening to complaints about buildings lies in discerning the issues that encounters with 'ugly' buildings bring to the fore."---Kathryn O’Rourke, Rice Design Alliance"To call out ugliness, then, is a call to arms. While beauty basks lazily and uselessly in its own perfection, ugliness spurs us into action."---Igor Toronyi-Lalic, The Spectator

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A miracle of poetry in the midst of academic rigidity." * Télérama *". . . a rich volume, intelligently illustrated. . . . With sure-footed scholarship, trenchant opinions, Michel Pastoureau goes beyond a perfunctory visit: he makes us realize the importance of this material and avoids the errors of a number of other historians." * Le Monde *". . . a delicious mix of erudition and lighthearted fun." * Livres *"Pastoureau's text moves us through one fascinating area of activity after another. . . . The jacket, cover and end-papers of this luscious book are appropriately blue; its double-columned text breathes easily in the space of its pages; it is so well sewn it opens flat at any place; and fascinating, aptly chosen color plates, not confined to the title color, will please even those eyes denied the good luck of being blue."---William Gass, Los Angeles Times Book Review"Blue is both prettily produced and whimsically enjoyable."---Julian Bell, Times Literary Supplement"Michel Pastoureau takes us into territory that could be made to feel impossibly dense and absurdly specialized. To his credit, the tour is brisk and challenging."---John Loughery, Washington Post Book World"A generous, gorgeous book full of nearly 100 historical and artistic plates, all illustrating the meaning and role of the color blue in Western history. . . . Pastoureau has created something rare: a coffee table book that is also a good read. And not just a good read, but a compelling read."---Brian Bouldrey, Chicago Tribune"Blue . . . is confident, stylish, well-turned out. . . . The book's sapphire glow will grace the most discriminating coffee tables."---Jane Gardam, Spectator"This beautifully illustrated book is well written and informative, and makes an important contribution to the social history of art." * Choice *"In this beguiling and beautiful mixture of art book and social history, the distinguished French scholar shows how the rarest of all colors became the commonest."---Emma Hagestadt and Boyd Tonkin, The Independent Magazine"The material history of a certain section of the spectrum, from the costly tones of the Virgin's cloak to uniforms, Picasso and jeans. History can make you blind, but some historians can make you see again."---James Davidson, Daily Telegraph"Taken together, the earlier volumes on blue (2001), black (2009), green (2013) and red (2017), plus the new book, [Yellow,] represent ‘an edifice’ that [Michel Pastoureau] has been working to build for half a century: a history of colours in (for the most part) Europe from the ancient Greeks and Romans to the 18th century and beyond. . . . [The books] amount to an ambitious project deserving not merely respect but even a touch of awe. There are very few comparable enterprises."---Kevin Jackson, Literary Review

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the NAVSA Best Book of the Year, North American Victorian Studies Association""Quaint, Exquisite is a beautifully written book. . . . [Lavery] is an invigorating, compelling collaborative critical voice which demands, and amply repays, the reader’s time and thought."---Gail Marshall, Times Higher Education"[Lavery’s] musings are worlds away from the archival explorations and excavations preoccupying most Victorianists now. But both approaches, hands-on and theoretical, are valid and valuable . . . . Grace Lavery combines them, most eloquently when reading individual works. That is rather a rare skill."---Jacqueline Banerjee, Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"What Noë shows is how that essential act of ‘making’ art is more than just an act of pleasure. . . . What it really encompasses is a radical act of inquiry into our entanglement."---Adam Frank, Big Think"[A]rt is at the heart of philosophy and the fusion of the two with a range of subjects can help us better understand what makes us human. . . .Alva Noe has introduced his thesis that is bound to generate enough debate on the antidote supplied by art and philosophy that “makes us what we are”, a state where the people, surrounded by music, art, sculpture, poetry become creative enough to break out of the codified social organisation into a more liberated and an inspirationally fulfilling life infused with the aesthetic."---Shelley Walia, The Hindu

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of The Atlantic's Best Books of 2018"

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"José Ortega y Gasset is certainly the greatest philosophical essayist of the first half of the 20th century, and very likely one of its few genuinely seminal minds. . . . The Dehumanization of Art is still among the best efforts to define and interpret the radical break in continuity between modern art and the whole Renaissance tradition of representation which ended in the 19th century."—Joseph Frank, New Republic"An erudite and magnanimous capitulation of the old to the young . . . both wise and noble."—Mark Helprin, New Criterion

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Beautifully illustrated. . . . [Pastoureau] unpicks the meanings of the colour by delving into a broad range of cultural references, from history, clothing and myth to art and etymology, and shows the different roles each colour has played in society and how they have changed."---Michael Prodger, The Times"Yellow is in part the story of gold, but that was just the beginning, Michel Pastoureau points out in the fifth of his lively, informative, brightly illustrated series about individual colours."---Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times"Pastoureau’s main aim is not simply to record how hues have been used, but to seek out the various values they have expressed and embodied in different times. . . . Yellow is worth buying as much for its sumptuous images as its scholarship."---Kevin Jackson, Literary Review"The French scholar Michel Pastoureau investigates how individual colours have been viewed and used in the past. Yellow: The History of a Colour is the successor to similar volumes on blue, green, black and red. But it turns out that yellow has had an intriguing, though chequered, time."---Martin Gayford, The Spectator Australia"Yellow: The History of a Color is the fifth such volume that Pastoureau has produced. Like its predecessors, which recount the visual and cultural histories of blue (2001), black (2009), green (2013), and red (2017), this one is elegant and engaging — as alluring to gaze at as it is compelling to read. Yellow may be an unsettling color, but this is a lovely and striking book."---Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe"Like Pastoureau’s earlier volumes, this is a beautifully produced book and an impressive work of scholarship . . . it is a fascinating and sensual celebration of our complex love-hate relationship with what Goethe called this 'joyous colour'."---Peter D. Smith, The Guardian"If you are contemplating going to a museum, or purchasing a painting for millions for your private collection, this book is going to involve less gas or less investment, and the outcome might be more nourishing."---Anna Faktorovich, Pennsylvania Literary Review"[Yellow: The History of a Color] tells the fascinating story of yellow’s evolving place in art, religion, literature and science from its sacred and symbolic status in antiquity, through its demonic associations with lawlessness when tinged with green, but in its pure state, still engendering feelings of pleasure and abundance, to its positive position in Asian societies and its lasting status as the colour of Buddhism."---Wendy and Ian Lipke, Queensland Reviewers Collection"Richly illustrated and impressively wide-ranging." * The Week *"Michel Pastoureau continues his study of colors, following up on similar works about blue, black, green and red. Pastoureau’s book, a measured and scholarly approach, is filled with images of art and artifacts as well as the color’s interesting role in world history."---Diane Cowen, Houston Chronicle"Yellow: The History of a Color takes readers on a Eurocentric tour of the color."---Alicia Eler, Minneapolis Star Tribune"Yellow is perhaps the most difficult of the colors Pastoureau has undertaken so far. Nonetheless, he handles it with the same sure hand and informed historical perspective he did its predecessors (Blue, Green, Red, and Black). . . . Visuals are handsome and accompanied by text that is both scholarly and easily readable, and that addresses subjects ranging from perception, philology, etymology, and dyes and pigments, to the artistic and symbolic use of color from antiquity onward."---R.M. Davis, Choice

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The Hungry Eye is a food-obsessed frolic through the artwork, writing, and philosophy of hundreds of years of Western history. . . . From the fruits that adorn Renaissance portraits of the Madonna and Child to the platter that carries St. John the Baptist’s head, Barkan parses the past with gusto."---Hyperallergic, Lauren Moya Ford"A foundational text of Food Studies. . . . This book does for food in art and literature what Sidney Mintz did for food and global politics in Sweetness and Power. It should be right up there with Mintz’s book as a foundational text of Food Studies. . . . Everyone interested in Food Studies as a discipline, food in art, and anything having to do with food and culture will want to read this book—for its ideas, its gorgeousness, and for sheer pleasure."---Marion Nestle, Food Politics"It's unusual to have a culinary history that is also highly recommended for arts holdings; but The Hungry Eye is a feast of mind and eye that holds much food for thought for scholarly audiences interested in a different approach to food and drink's importance in human affairs." * Donovan’s Literary Services *"Leonard Barkan has written a terrific book that ranges far more widely than one might expect, is impressively learned, and yet is remarkably accessible and often entertaining. . . . One closes the book convinced of the centrality of food and drink in European culture. This is a fine addition to the literature on the history of food that adds depth to the largely narrative histories that have preceded it."---Rod Phillips, The World of Fine Wine"Sumptuous, eminently absorbing, delectably erudite and cornucopian. . . . [The Hungry Eye] is a beautifully personal, resonantly learned, beguilingly written chronicle of how food, throughout the centuries, has brought the via contemplativa and the via activa together. . . . A feast for the eyes and for the mind."---Mika Provata-Carlone, Bookanista"In a beautifully written and illustrated book, [Barkan] has explored how what is eaten and imbibed —literally and figuratively –portray, shape and explain how Western culture from Rome through the Renaissance. . . . The result is a delicious rich broth filled with depth and nuance that will satisfy the learned reader and urge her or him to ask for more."---Richard Zimmer, Food Anthropology

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the NAVSA Best Book of the Year, North American Victorian Studies Association""Quaint, Exquisite is a beautifully written book. . . . [Lavery] is an invigorating, compelling collaborative critical voice which demands, and amply repays, the reader’s time and thought."---Gail Marshall, Times Higher Education"[Lavery’s] musings are worlds away from the archival explorations and excavations preoccupying most Victorianists now. But both approaches, hands-on and theoretical, are valid and valuable . . . . Grace Lavery combines them, most eloquently when reading individual works. That is rather a rare skill."---Jacqueline Banerjee, Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Seminary Co-Op Notable Book of the Year""[Cohen] makes the case that talking to others—sharing our stories—is how we learn things and sharpen our belief systems, how we piece together what it means to be funny or empathetic. Conversation can change our minds while sustaining our souls."---Hua Hsu, New Yorker"[Cohen] explores what makes for a vivacious meeting of minds. . . . She prizes conversation as an end in itself, its value residing not in the achievement of any particular outcome but in the pleasure of fluent verbal interchange."---Charlie Tyson, The Atlantic"The chief value of this book is its abiding reminder of the pleasure of good talk. . . . It’s a lesson in how conversation can reveal our truest, fullest selves."---Danny Heitman, Wall Street Journal"Talking Cure is a thought-provoking read. Cohen skillfully leads the reader through a lively and adventurous exploration of conversation in a wide variety of settings and situations." * Choice Reviews *"Like an agile museum guide, Cohen ushers us through a series of literary and historical exhibitions, not as a lecturer but as a conversation partner in prose. That is, Cohen artfully gives us a book that is itself a conversation about conversation in which the learned and the conversible are reunited. . . . Talking Cure is a beautifully expressed reminder of the joys, perils, and aspirations of conversation and its civilizing power."---Todd Breyfogle, Law & Liberty

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"As Hyde eloquently demonstrates in a compelling trajectory that arcs from Stonehenge to modern London, ugliness is more than a physical trait or quality assigned to an object. It has acted as a site and catalyst for debate on broader social circumstances."---Catherine Slessor, The Guardian"This book is a welcome break from good taste. . . . If you have ever wondered why a certain building seems ugly, this book will help you understand why you feel that way."---Lucy Watson, Financial Times"Hyde’s book confronts ugliness head on, using it as a way to interrogate British architectural discourse. . . . [His] research on the individual case studies is impeccable."---Richard J. Williams, Times Higher Education"The great achievement of this book is to show that, even if the language and opinions about taste change, debates about architecture have always had some common features. They are never just about buildings."---William Whyte, Church Times"Discussions such as those effectively summarised in Ugliness and Judgement are so instructive when we evaluate how to apply concepts of beauty and ugliness in architectural debates."---Alexander Adams, Salisbury Review"A fascinating book. In taking as a point of departure the limitations of aesthetics, Hyde invites readers to understand the assessment of aesthetic failure as a wedge that pries open conversations about inadequate, unresolved, or unsatisfying social and legal arrangements. Ugliness, in his telling, points to gaps in social, regulatory, urban, and institutional fabrics. The author implies that the value of listening to complaints about buildings lies in discerning the issues that encounters with 'ugly' buildings bring to the fore."---Kathryn O’Rourke, Rice Design Alliance"To call out ugliness, then, is a call to arms. While beauty basks lazily and uselessly in its own perfection, ugliness spurs us into action."---Igor Toronyi-Lalic, The Spectator

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry] contains a wealth of concrete perception on the most varied aesthetic problems. It is impossible to do more than mention M. Maritain’s beautifully balanced chapter on abstract art, his discussion of the difference between classical and modern poetic imagery, and the gentle irony with which he chides the over-zealousness of modern critics who use Dante to denigrate modern poetry. . . . It is a rare pleasure to read a work characterized by this habit of mind and this sensibility . . . the best attempt yet made to write a poetics of modern art."---Joseph Frank, New Republic

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"It is impossible to approach this profoundly stimulating book by Oleg Grabar without reflecting on the strange twists of fate that the discourse of ornament has undergone in the last two centuries. . . . Oleg Grabar takes up anew the challenge of using ornament to broach artistic questions."---Margaret Olin, Art Bulletin"This is writing that not only rewards but requires rereading. . . . If The Formation of Islamic Art was the most provocative and generously conceived book on its subject in the '70s, The Mediation of Ornament, with its expanded frame of reference and sense of personal urgency, may well assume that status for the '90s."---Holland Cotter, Art in America"In a real sense the book is a mediation, the Platonic daemon, between ornament and the reader. . . . When language has to be invented or defined to fulfill a specific need, as here, it is a sign that new concepts are being proposed by the author."---Sylvia Auld, Art History"With perhaps Socratic irony, Grabar maneuvers between ideology and mere decoration by divining in ornament a mediating function in a world troubled by doubt. Grabar believes that ornament constitutes a ‘discourse on love.’ His book, written with a kindly wit, and a keen intelligence, is beautifully illustrated, and itself illustrates the role of ornament in the world." * Bostonia *"Grabar seeks to understand the transmission of meaning from visual form to interpretation: what is it that mediates between the physical object and a viewer's understanding? He postulates that in Islamic art it is writing, geometry and (images of) architecture and nature, which together constitute ornament. . . . An honest statement of one scholar's personal intellectual journey." * Mesa Bulletin *"An admirable treatise . . . it offers its readers an exemplary interplay of art history and aesthetics. One receives a beautifully illustrated introduction to Islamic art, and each work earns its presence by serving to bring a theoretical issue to life. This is cross-fertilization at its very best." * Journal of Aesthetics and Art *

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Book SynopsisThe roots and evolution of two concepts usually thought to be Western in origin-musica mundana (the music of the spheres) and musica humana (music's relation to the human soul)-are explored. Beginning with a study of the early creeds of the Near East, Professor Meyer-Baer then traces their development in the works of Plato and the Gnostics, and inTable of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*Preface, pg. vii*Photographic Sources, pg. xi*Contents, pg. xiii*List of Illustrations, pg. xvii*Introduction to Part One, pg. 2*I. Theories of the Cosmos in Antiquity, pg. 7*II. The Hellenistic Period, pg. 20*III. The Early Christian Centuries, pg. 29*IV. The Early Works of Art, pg. 42*V. Tonal Theories of Music of the Spheres, pg. 70*VI. The Emergence of Celestial Musicians in Christian Iconography, pg. 87*VII. Late Medieval Writings and Dante's Paradise, pg. 116*DANCING ANGELS AND THE DANCE OF THE BLESSED, pg. 130*SINGING ANGELS, pg. 138*ANGEL ORCHESTRAS, pg. 143*ANGELS OF THE PSALTER, pg. 173*ANGELS' INSTRUMENTS - REAL OR IMAGINARY?, pg. 183*IX. Renaissance and Humanism, pg. 188*X. Two Offshoots of the Idea of the Music of the Spheres, pg. 203*Introduction to Part Two, pg. 218*XI. Music as a Symbol of Death in Antiquity, pg. 224*XII. Later Greek Concepts and the Hellenistic Period, pg. 242*XIII. The Christian Era the Development of Early Medieval Images, pg. 270*XIV. Later Medieval Images: The Dance of Death, pg. 291*XV. The Fifteenth-Century Mystics, pg. 313*XVI. Survivals of Earlier Images, pg. 320*Conclusion: Survivals in Contemporary Musical Concepts, pg. 337*Appendix I. EXCERPTS FROM FIRST CHAPTER OF LETTER ON HARMONY ADDRESSED TO ARCHBISHOP RATHBOD OF TREVES BY REGINO OF PRUM, pg. 349*Appendix II. EXCERPTS FROM THE HYMN "NATURALIS CONCORDIA VOCUM CUM PLANETIS" ("NATURAL HARMONY OF THE TONK AND THE PLANETS"), pg. 351*Appendix III. THE MUSIC IN DANTE'S COSMOS, pg. 352*Appendix IV. A NOTE ON THE SINGERS OF THE GHENT ALTAR, pg. 357*Appendix V. REAL OR IMAGINARY INSTRUMENTS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE BEATUS MANUSCRIPTS AND THE UTRECHT PSALTER, pg. 360*Index, pg. 365

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Book SynopsisHere, the theory of environmental aesthetics is related to our active appreciation of the prosaic landscapes of home, recreation or work. This leads to the discovery of hidden continuities, as well as the pleasure and meaning we receive from our understanding of our environment.

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