<philosophy of art, beauty>, <sublime, imitation, creation, romanticism> branch of philosophy that studies beauty and taste, including their specific manifestations in the tragic, the comic, and the sublime. Its central issues include questions about the origin and status of aesthetic judgments: are they objective statements about genuine features of the world or purely subjective expressions of personal attitudes; should they include any reference to the intentions of artists or the reactions of patrons; and how are they related to judgments of moral value? Aesthetics is a significant component of the philosophical work of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Santayana. Recommended Reading: A Companion to Aesthetics, ed. by David Cooper, Crispin Sartwell, and Joseph Margolis (Blackwell, 1995); Aesthetics, ed. by Patrick Maynard and Susan Feagin (Oxford, 1998); Anne D. R. Sheppard, Aesthetics: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art (Oxford, 1987).
[A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names]
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