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Beauty: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference. In this Very Short Introduction, the renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores the concept of beauty, asking what makes an object--either in art, in nature, or the human f...more
Paperback, 186 pages
Published
April 8th 2011
by Oxford University Press
(first published January 1st 2011)
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The sense of beauty is one of the most fundamental human universals. No one is immune to aesthetic appeals, and it seems that the appreciation of the beauty is an exclusive human characteristic. This very short introduction aims to introduce the general reader to some of the fundamental intellectual underpinnings of this essential concept. Unfortunately, the book falls short with respect to this objective.
I am a huge fan of Roger Scruton's writings, and have read many of his articles and books,...more
I am a huge fan of Roger Scruton's writings, and have read many of his articles and books,...more
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For someone who is not very familiar with philosophy, this seemed a really nice introduction to aesthetics. Plus, the author makes it clear that he will not discuss speculation of any connection between beauty and the Meaning of the universe. In contrast to one reviewer, I thought there was at least some discussion of the "evolutionary" theory of the sense of beauty. Mr. Scruton seemed simply to debunk it.
Author's language is inaccessible to everyday readers. Have read more relevant and understandable works by contemporary philosophers.
Mr. Scruton provides us, in this small volume, a voluminous gaze at a favorite topic of mine: beauty. As a philosopher (where I am not), his approach is at times intangible and obtuse, but his logic unassailable and his writing, sublime. He does in just a few pages what many fail to do in considerably larger volumes: make sense of beauty, or aesthetics, and seamlessly wed that, whether intentionally or not, to the higher calling of our spirits to the divine Other. A magic little book I can't wai...more
welp.
after about 50 pages i got bored.. and decided not to read any more.
after about 50 pages i got bored.. and decided not to read any more.
Very good intro to the phil. of aesthetics
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Roger Vernon Scruton is a self-employed English philosopher and writer, known in the UK as a key figure in the "New Right" in the 1980s and 1990s. He currently lives in rural Wiltshire, but was a professor of philosophy at Boston University from 1992 to 1995, and subsequently a professor at Birkbeck College, London.
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