Arguing About Art : Contemporary Philosophical Debates - 2nd edition

1. The Art of Food?

Can we think of cooking as an art form and the dishes it produces as works of art?
What in the end makes a practice an art form and an object a work of art?
Food as Art, Elizabeth Telfer
The Meaning of Taste and the Taste of Meaning, Carolyn Korsmeyer

2. The "Authentic" Performance of Music

What is it to give an "authentic" performance of a piece of music? Should a performance be faithful to the composer's artistic intentions? Would an "authentic" performance have any aesthetic advantages?
Authenticity in Musical Performance, Stephen Davies
The Concept of Authentic Performance, James O. Young

3. Fakes and Forgeries

Would we be justified in revising out aesthetic judgement of a work after learning that it is a fake? In what ways does (or should) our knowledge that an artwork is an original bear upon our aesthetic valuation of it?
What is Wrong with a Forgery?, Alfred Lessing
Artistic Crimes, Denis Dutton

4. Rock Music and Culture

What roles does music play in culture? What does the widespread preference for rock music over classical music say about contemporary Western culture?
The Decline of Music Culture, Roger Scruton
Music Worldly Uses, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and to Love Led Zeppelin, Theodore Gracyk

5. Appreciation, Understanding and Nature

Are there correct and incorrect ways of appreciating nature and appreciating works of art? How does our aesthetic appreciation of nature differ from our aesthetic appreciation of works of art?
Appreciation and the Natural Environment, Allen Carlson
On Being Moved by Nature:Between Religion and Natural History, Noël Carroll

6. Photography and Representation

Are we interested in photograph for their own sake, or are we interested in photographs only for the sake of what they are photographs of? Is photography a representational art form? How does aesthetic appreciation of photographs differ from aesthetic appreciation of paintings?
Photography and Representation, Roger Scruton
Scruton and Reasons for Looking at Photographs, William L. King
Individual Style in Photographic Art, Nigel Warburton

7. Feeling and Fictions

Fictional characters aren't real. So why should we care what happens to them? Is it rational to be moved by what we know is not real? What sorts of state are we moved to when we are moved by fiction?
How Can We Be Moved by the Fate of Anna Karenina?, Colin Radford
Fiction and the Emotions, Alex Neill

8. Enjoying Horror

Why is it that we take such enjoyment in horror movies and novels? Why would one seek out works which are apparently designed to make us experience feeling and emotions such as fear and revulsion?
Why Horror?, Noël Carroll
The Paradox of Horror, Berys Gaut

9. Sentimentality

What makes an artwork, or a response to an artwork, sentimental? Is sentimental art always bad art? What makes sentimentality objectionable, when it is? Is sentimentality ever appropriate in a work or a response?
Sentimentality, Anthony Savile
The Alleged Unwholesomeness of Sentimentality, Ira Newman

10. Art and Morality

Could there be a great work of art that was morally bad? What would make a work of art morally bad? What is the relationship, if any between aesthetic and moral values?
Morals in Fiction and Fictional Morality, Kendall L. Walton
Morals in Fiction and Fictional Morality, a Response, Michael Tanner

11. Feminism and Aesthetics

Are there distinctively feminist ways of thinking philosophically about art? If there are, what challenges do they pose to traditional aesthetics? How might aesthetics evolve in response to the insights of feminist theory?
Oppressive Texts, Resisting Readers and the Gendered Spectator:The New Aesthetics, Mary Devereaux
Art, Oppression, and the Autonomy of Aesthetics, Curtis Brown

12. Public Art

What is the function of public art? What if anything is distinctive about the relationship in which public art stands to its audience, and to the space it occupies?
Various contributors, Transcript of a hearing to decide the future of the Tilted Arc
What is Public Art?: Place, Time and Meaning, Hilde Hein
Public Art/ Public Space:The Spectacle of the Tilted Arc Controversy, Gregg M. Horowitz
Public Art Controversy:The Serra and Lin Cases, Michael Kelly