Bøker av Arnold Berleant

Across these essays Arnold Berleant demonstrates how aesthetic values and theory can be used to reappraise our social practices. He tackles issues within the built environment, everyday life, and politics, breaking down the dichotomy between the natural and the human. His work represents a fresh approach to traditional philosophical questions in not only ethics, but in metaphysics, truth, meaning, psychology, phenomenology, and social and moral philosophy. Topics covered include the cultural aesthetics of environment, ecological aesthetics, the aesthetics of terrorism, and the subversion of beauty. The corruption of taste by the forces of commercial interests as well as how aesthetics can advance our understanding of violence are also considered. Berleant's exploration is supported by his analysis of 19th-century art to the present day, starting with impressionism through to postmodernism and contemporary artistic interventions. By critically examining the field in this way and casting new light on social understanding and practice, this collection makes a substantive contribution in identifying and clarifying central human issues, guided by an understanding of aesthetic engagement as a powerful tool for social critique.

The essays collected in Aesthetics and Environment comprise a set of variations on art and culture guided by the theme of environment. The essays deal with the physical reality of environment such as the city, the shore, the water and the garden, but also with the virtual environment and the social one.

Here, 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.

Taking the view that aesthetics is a study grounded in perception, this volume includes essays that exhibit many sides of the perceptual complex that is the aesthetic field and develops them in different ways.

Environmental aesthetics explores the meaning and influence of environmental perception and experience on human life. Arguing for the idea that environment is fully integrated and continuous with us, this book explores the aesthetic dimensions of the human-environment continuum in both theoretical terms and concrete situations.

Develops an alternative to the eighteenth-century aesthetic of disinterestedness. Centering on the notion of participatory engagement in the appreciation of art, this work explores its appearance in art and in aesthetic perception. It examines the ways in which art entices us into intimate participation in its workings.