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Sublimity addresses the nature of the sublime experience itself,
and the function that experience has played, and continues to play,
within aesthetic discourse. The book both updates and revises
existing treatments of the sublime in the eighteenth century,
examines its neglected role in the nineteenth century aesthetics,
and analyzes the significance of the modifications the concept has
undergone in order to serve the interests of contemporary
aesthetics. The book thus offers the most comprehensive coverage of
the history of the sublime available.
A provocative examination of the concept of the sublime from the
eighteenth century to its reappearance within contemporary
aesthetics and postmodern theory. It delivers a detailed account
that traces the concept from the work of Edward Burke and his
contemporaries through the Romantics and Kant to its reemergence in
the writings of Lyotard and other postmodern thinkers. Although
numerous authors have written books theorizing the sublime, this
text stands alone as the only historical overview. Consequently, it
fills an important gap in the current literature which has seen a
recent explosion in writing about beauty. This is a lucid study
written with wit and clarity. It will also be of great interest to
students and scholars as the most authoritative account of the
subject available.
The Futility of Philosophical Ethics puts forward a novel account
of the grounds of moral feeling with fundamental implications for
philosophical ethics. It examines the grounds of moral feeling by
both the phenomenology of that feeling, and the facts of moral
feeling in operation - particularly in forms such as moral luck,
vicious virtues, and moral disgust - that appear paradoxical from
the point of view of systematic ethics. Using an analytic approach,
James Kirwan engages in the ongoing debates among contemporary
philosophers within metaethics and normative ethics. Instead of
trying to erase the variety of moral responses that exist in
philosophical analysis under one totalizing system, Kirwan argues
that such moral theorizing is futile. His analysis counters
currently prevalent arguments that seek to render the origins of
moral experience unproblematic by finding substitutes for realism
in various forms of noncognitivism. In reasserting the problematic
nature of moral experience, and offering a theory of the origins of
that experience in unavoidable individual desires, Kirwan accounts
for the diverse manifestations of moral feeling and demonstrates
why so many arguments in metaethics and normative ethics are
necessarily irresolvable.
"A very serious undertaking by a scholar who has an excellent
knowledge of Kant's philosophy. Kant's aesthetics is a hot topic
right now, so this book will be of considerable interest to those
in the field." - Donald Crawford, University of Southern California
at Santa Barbara. "An alternative account of aesthetic judgment
which is rich, interesting and provocative. This is a book which
will certainly provoke engagement and debate." - Rachel Jones,
Dundee University. Kant's "Critique of Judgment" is widely
considered to be the seminal work of modern aesthetics. In recent
years it has been the focus of intense interest and debate not only
in philosophy but also in literary theory and other disciplines in
which the nature of the aesthetic is an issue. "The Aesthetic in
Kant" offers a new reading of Kant's problematic text, drawing on
the great volume of recent philosophical work on the text and on
the context of eighteenth century aesthetics. Kant's text is used
as a basis on which to construct a radical alternative solution to
the antinomy of taste, the basic problem of the aesthetic. Immanent
in Kant's account is a theory of the aesthetic that, far from
establishing its 'disinterested' nature, instead makes it
symptomatic of what Kant himself describes as the ineradicable
human tendency to entertain 'fantastic desires'.
The Futility of Philosophical Ethics puts forward a novel account
of the grounds of moral feeling with fundamental implications for
philosophical ethics. It examines the grounds of moral feeling by
both the phenomenology of that feeling, and the facts of moral
feeling in operation – particularly in forms such as moral luck,
vicious virtues, and moral disgust – that appear paradoxical from
the point of view of systematic ethics. Using an analytic approach,
James Kirwan engages in the ongoing debates among contemporary
philosophers within metaethics and normative ethics. Instead of
trying to erase the variety of moral responses that exist in
philosophical analysis under one totalizing system, Kirwan argues
that such moral theorizing is futile. His analysis counters
currently prevalent arguments that seek to render the origins of
moral experience unproblematic by finding substitutes for realism
in various forms of noncognitivism. In reasserting the problematic
nature of moral experience, and offering a theory of the origins of
that experience in unavoidable individual desires, Kirwan accounts
for the diverse manifestations of moral feeling and demonstrates
why so many arguments in metaethics and normative ethics are
necessarily irresolvable.
Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment is widely held to be the
seminal work of modern aesthetics. In recent years it has been the
focus of intense interest and debate not only in philosophy but
also in literary theory and all disciplines concerned with the
aesthetic. The Aesthetic in Kant is a new reading of Kant's
problematic text. It draws upon the great volume of recent
philosophical work on this classic text and on the context of
eighteenth century aesthetics. Kant's work is used as a basis on
which to construct a radical alternative to the antinomy of taste -
the basic problem of the aesthetic. In Kant's account is a theory
of the aesthetic that, far from establishing its 'disinterested'
nature, instead makes it symptomatic of what Kant himself describes
as the ineradicable human tendency to entertain 'fantastic
desires'.
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