Aesthetics and the Environment

The Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture

By Allen Carlson

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About the Book

Traditional aesthetics is often associated with the appreciation of art, Allen Carlson shows how much of our aesthetic experience does not encompass art but nature. He argues that knowledge of what it is we are appreciating is essential to having an appropriate aesthetic experience and that scientific understanding of nature can enhance our appreciation of it, rather than denigrate it.

Reviews

'I found much stimulating discussion in these pages. [Carlson] is a worthy opponent for those wedded to a more Kantian or historicist approach to natural beauty.' - British Journal of Aesthetics

'Philosophical aesthetics at its best.' - Canadian Aesthetics Journal

Table of Contents

List of illustrations Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: aesthetics and the environment
PART 1 The appreciation of nature
^T1 The aesthetics of nature
2 Understanding and aesthetic experience
3 Formal qualities in the natural environment
4 Appreciation and the natural environment
5 Nature, aesthetic judgment, and objectivity
6 Nature ad positive aesthetics
7 Appreciating art and appreciating nature
PART II
Landscapes, art and architecture
8 Between nature and art
9 Environmental aesthetics and the dilemma of aesthetic education
10 Is environmental art an aesthetic affront to nature?
11 The aesthetic appreciation of Japanese gardens
12 Appreciating agricultural landscapes
13 Existence, location, and function:the appreciation of architecture
14 Landscape and literature