Review: Beyond Aesthetics: Philosophical Essays
Abstract
Book Reviews 323 Beyond Aesthetics: Philosophical Essays, by Noël Carroll. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ï²ï°ï°ï±. Pp. xiv + ï´ïµï°. H/b £ïµï°.ï°ï°, P/b £ï±ï¸.ï¹ïµ. The title Beyond Aesthetics might suggest postmodernism or a wholesale rejection of mainstream aesthetics. But thatâs entirely wrong here. This superbly rich and readable collection of essays is by a leading exponent of analytical aesthetics, not just working in, but largely fashioning, the current mainstream. Noël Carroll is a proliï¬c and inï¬uential aesthetician well known for his earlier work in ï¬lm theory which yielded a knock-down assault on all species of poststructuralist, Marxist, and psychoanalytic approaches to ï¬lm. Since then Carroll has brought his no-nonsense, jargon-free analyses to bear on just about every topic of recent debate in aesthetics, including the deï¬nition of art, intentions, art and emotion, art and morality, aesthetic experience, high art and low art, and the aesthetics of nature, all of which feature in this volume. Carroll has a distinctive line on each topic and more often than not his theses are the focus for debates in the journals. Typically, and disarmingly, these theses are characterized with expressions like âmoderate moralismâ or âmodest actual intentionalismâ. Carroll is a staunch advocate of