Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores the aesthetics of the objects and environments we encounter in daily life. Thomas Leddy stresses the close relationship between everyday aesthetics and the aesthetics of art, but places special emphasis on neglected aesthetic terms such as ‘neat,’ ‘messy,’ ‘pretty,’ ‘lovely,’ ‘cute,’ and ‘pleasant.’ The author advances a general theory of aesthetic experience that can account for our appreciation of art, nature, and the everyday.
Trade Review“Thomas Leddy offers a comprehensive and compelling treatment of everyday aesthetics, discussing a wide variety of historical and contemporary sources while putting forward an interesting new theory of what it is to have an aesthetic experience. This engaging book is suitable for students, scholars, and anyone wishing to enrich their experience of everyday life.” — Sherri Irvin, University of Oklahoma
“The Extraordinary in the Ordinary is a significant contribution to the newly important field of everyday aesthetics. The book provides an excellent critical overview of work in this field to date, but more importantly breaks new ground by extending our understanding of aesthetic experience and of the properties we encounter in that experience.” — Robert Stecker, Central Michigan University
“Discussion of everyday aesthetics has been gaining momentum in recent years, and as well as developing his own theory of everyday aesthetics and of aesthetic experience more broadly construed, Leddy has produced an invaluable reflective consolidation of the work of major contributors to the discipline, past and present.” — Christopher Dowling, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: The Domain of Everyday Aesthetics
Chapter 1: The Nature of Everyday Aesthetics
Chapter 2: Aesthetic Experience and Aesthetic Properties
Chapter 3: Everyday Aesthetics and the Environment
Part II: A Theory of Everyday Aesthetics
Chapter 4: Aesthetic Experience as Experience of Objects with Aura
Chapter 5: A Bestiary of Aesthetic Terms for Everyday Contexts
Chapter 6: Criticisms Actual and Possible
Chapter 7: Everyday Surface Aesthetic Qualities
Chapter 8: Everyday Aesthetics and the Sublime
Conclusion
Index
