This anthology provides comprehensive coverage of the major contributions of analytic philosophy to aesthetics and the philosophy of art, from the earliest beginnings in the 1950s to the present time. The volume presents the classics of this tradition, and in so doing displays the very foundations of modern debates. Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Artalso features a selection of key papers from subsequent contributors that illustrate how the debates developed and how issues arose as analytic philosophers increasingly turned their attention to this area.The volume is a comprehensive guide for students and researchers in aesthetics and philosophy of art, conveniently making available all those papers most often cited. The papers are grouped into sections, ordered chronologically, and covering theoretical topics – identifying art, ontology, aesthetic properties, intention and interpretation, values of art, fictionality – as well as particular art forms, including pictorial art, literature, music, and the popular arts. A final section looks at the aesthetics of nature.

"To my knowledge, Lamarque and Olsen’s anthology is the most comprehensive and judiciously put-together collection of its kind to date. It includes all of the authors one can think of on anyone’s list of the major contributors to the late twentieth-century analytic tradition in aesthetics and philosophy of art. It is both deep and broad. If you are going to a desert island, and baggage space is limited, this is definitely the collection on the subject you want to take with you. The period covered by Lamarque and Olsen's anthology is one of the richest in the history of the discipline: a veritable golden age of philosophical speculation on art and the aesthetic that, I am glad to say, is not over yet, and to which this volume will be a major contribution." Peter Kivy, Rutgers University <!--end-->

"A sparkling compilation of essential readings, balancing classics in analytic aesthetics with recent developments, all skilfully arranged to capture every reader's interests. An incomparable achievement." Dominic McIver Lopes, University of British Columbia

This anthology provides comprehensive coverage of the major contributions of analytic philosophy to aesthetics and the philosophy of art, from the earliest beginnings in the 1950's to the present time.

This anthology provides comprehensive coverage of the major contributions of analytic philosophy to aesthetics and the philosophy of art, from the earliest beginnings in the 1950’s to the present time.

• Traces the contributions of the analytic tradition to aesthetics and the philosophy of art, from the 1950’s to the present time.

• Designed as a comprehensive guide to the field, it presents the most often-cited papers that students and researchers encounter.

• Addresses a wide range of topics, including identifying art, ontology, intention and interpretation, values of art, aesthetic properties, fictionality, and the aesthetics of nature.

• Explores particular art forms, including pictorial art, literature, music, and the popular arts.

Peter Lamarqueis Professor of Philosophy and Head of Department at the University of York. He has published widely on fictionality, philosophy of literature, and aesthetics, including Truth, Fiction, and Literature(1994, with Stein Haugom Olsen) and Fictional Points of View(1996). He is Editor of the British Journal of Aestheticsand was also philosophy subject editor for the 10-volume Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.

Stein Haugom Olsenis Chair Professor of Humanities and Head of the Department of Philosophy at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. He is the author of The Structure of Literary Understanding(1978) and The End of Literary Theory(1987), as well as more than forty articles on literary theory, literary criticism, and aesthetics. He is an elected fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

General Introduction.

Part I: Identifying Art.

Part II: Ontology Of Art.

Part III: Aesthetic Properties.

Part IV: Intention And Interpretation.

Part V: Values Of Art.

Part VI: Fictionality.

Part VII: Pictorial Art.

Part VIII: Literature.

Part IX: Music.

Part X: Popular Art.

Index