What is art? The contributors to Theories of Art Today address the assertion that the term “art” no longer holds meaning. They explore a variety of issues including: aesthetic and institutional theories of art, feminist perspectives on the philosophy of art, the question of whether art is a cluster concept, and the relevance of tribal art to philosophical aesthetics. Contributors to this book include such distinguished philosophers and historians as Arthur Danto, Joseph Margolis, and George Dickie.
Noël Carroll is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Humanities at Temple University and Past-President of the American Society for Aesthetics. He is the author of Philosophy of Mass Art, Interpreting the Moving Image, Theorizing the Moving Image, and Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction. He is co-editor (with David Bordwell) of Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies, which is also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
“Unquestionably the most authoritative and up-to-date collection of materials on a very important philosophical topic. Noël Carroll has done a masterful job of assembling a first-class cast of scholars who have been highly prominent in the ongoing debate over the role of theory in aesthetics. They are concerned with the question of how we can circumscribe the enterprise (or objects) of art in an intellectual environment that is generally hostile to real definition. Public policy makers concerned with public art, K–12 art teachers, students of cultural history, art critics, and many others will naturally be interested in this subject.” —Ronald Moore, University of Washington–Seattle
“Carroll is our foremost interpreter of how philosophical aesthetics has developed, and his way of laying out the story is always illuminating.” —Anita Silvers, San Francisco State University
