Beauty is back. For a long time, theorists of art have been fascinated with the sublime, but markedly indifferent toward—indeed positively suspicious of—the beautiful. Recently, however, literary critics, philosophers of art, and practitioners of art have started returning to beauty. The Aesthetics project seeks to revitalize aesthetic theory to appropriate new insights about the beautiful and its role in our lives; and to reintegrate reflections about beauty into aesthetics generally, so that the proper place of beauty with respect to other core topics in aesthetics (e.g. the sublime, imagination, aesthetic communities) can be explored with fresh eyes.

Events 2006-07

• Thursday, November 16, 2006
  Alexander Nehamas, Princeton University, will discuss his book in progress on beauty, 7-9 p.m., Building 200, Room 105. For more information and to download the manuscript in progress, see the Philosophy and Literature Program web site.

Please check back soon for updates to our schedule.

About the Chairs

• R. Lanier Anderson is associate professor of philosophy.
• Joshua Landy is associate professor of French.
• Florian Klinger is a Ph.D. student in comparative literature.
• Laurel Scotland-Stewart is a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy.

Contact

For more information please email Lanier Anderson, Joshua Landy, Florian Klinger, or Laurel Scotland-Stewart.

Return to Collaborative Research Project list.

René Magritte,
La condition humaine