Cover -- Title -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Art is anomalous -- 2. Forms of aesthetic scepticism: philistines and iconoclasts -- 3. Historical note -- 4. The central issues -- 5. Aestheticism -- I Hedonism and the Theory of Taste -- 1. General objections -- 2. Beauty as a secondary quality: Hutcheson, Reid, Burke -- 3. Beauty as a primary quality: Santayana. Bell -- 4. Hume's theory -- II Theories that Assign a Direct Practical F'urpose to Art -- 1. Nutritional and medicinal analogies -- 2. General difficulties -- 3. Art as substitute satisfaction: Freud -- 4. Tolstoy's theory -- 5. Art as a pseudo-capacity: Plato -- 6. Beauty and inspiration: Plato -- 7. Metaphysical aestheticism: Plotinus -- III Perfection and the Play of Cognition -- 1. Aristotle's theory of pleasure -- 2. Beauty and perfection: a dilemma -- 3. Rationalist aesthetics: Leibniz, Baumgarten -- 4. Kant's theory (I): the existence of a non-cognitiveaim of cognition -- 5. Kant's theory (2): the sublime and the moralsignijicance of beauty -- IV Art as the Experience of Metaphysical Truth -- 1. The reception of Kant's theory: Schiller, Schelling -- 2. Art and nature: Schelling -- 3. Art as the 'sensuous presentation of the Absolute': Hegel -- 4. Hegel's iconoclasm -- 5. Art as respite: Schopenhauer -- 6. Schopenhauer on music -- 7. Conclusion: the needfor a theory offorms of knowledge -- V Art as Language -- 1. Knowledge by acquaintance -- 2. The phenomenological approach: Dufrenne -- 3. Croce's theory of intuition and expression -- 4. Presentational symbols: Langer -- 5. Art and the general theory of symbols: Goodman -- VI Art and Metaphor -- 1. The relevance of metaphor -- 2. Theories of metaphor -- 3. Literalist and tropist prejudices -- 4. Dead and faint metaphor -- 5. Viewpoints and exponability -- 6. Art as metaphor.

7. Unanswered questions -- VII Virtues and Indirect Pleasures -- 1. A problem about pleasure and 'completeness' -- 2. Cognitive virtues -- 3. A pragmatic theory of beauty -- 4. Art as recreation -- 5. The 'institutional' theory of art -- 6. Cognitive pleasure: Aristotle on happiness -- VIII The Aim Behind Perception -- 1. Cognition and the essentially metaphorical -- 2. The intellect and the senses: Aristotle -- 3. Further problems in understanding particulars -- 4. The imagination as a pseudo-capacity -- 5. Perception and kinaesthetic experience -- 6. Productive skills and conceptual empathy -- IX Aesthetic Satisfaction -- 1. Peculiarities of aesthetic enjoyment -- 2. Perceptual knowledge -- 3. Aesthetic understanding (I): empathic enjoyment -- 4. Aesthetic understanding (2): beauty and necessity -- 5. Beauty and experiential knowledge -- X Art and Artistic Abilities -- 1. Questions about art -- 2. Two theories of artistic abilities -- 3. Creative imagination -- 4. Inspiration and works of art -- 5. Inspiration and artistic success -- 6. Understanding art -- 7. The value of art: aesthetic experience as a source of meaning -- Bibliography -- Index.