The Origins of Aesthetic Thought in Ancient Greece

Matter, Sensation, and Experience

James I. Porter (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

626 Seiten

2010
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-0-521-84180-1 (ISBN)

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This book traces the origins of aesthetic thought and inquiry across a range of art forms as they evolved from before Homer down to the fourth century and then into later antiquity. It argues that Greek aesthetics originated in an attention to the senses and to matter rather than formalism and idealism.

This is the first modern attempt to put aesthetics back on the map in classical studies. James I. Porter traces the origins of aesthetic thought and inquiry in their broadest manifestations as they evolved from before Homer down to the fourth century and then into later antiquity, with an emphasis on Greece in its earlier phases. Greek aesthetics, he argues, originated in an attention to the senses and to matter as opposed to the formalism and idealism that were enshrined by Plato and Aristotle, and through whose lens most subsequent views of ancient art and aesthetics have typically been filtered. Treating aesthetics in this way can help us perceive the commonly shared basis of the diverse arts of antiquity. Reorienting our view of the ancient vocabularies of art and experience around matter and sensation, this book dramatically changes how we look upon the ancient achievements in these same areas.

James I. Porter is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Irvine. Recent publications include Classical Pasts: The Classical Traditions of Greece and Rome (edited, 2006), and The Invention of Dionysus: An Essay on the Birth of Tragedy (2000).

Introduction; Part I. Foundations: Aesthetics, Formalism, and Materialism: 1. Aesthetic thought in antiquity; 2. Form and formalism; 3. Matter and appearances; Part II. The Nascent Aesthetic Languages of the Sixth to Fourth Centuries BCE: 4. The rise of aesthetic reflection in the fifth century; 5. The evidence of Aristophanes and Gorgias; 6. The music of the voice; 7. The voice of music; 8. Visual experience; Part III. Broader Perspectives: 9. Sublime monuments in ancient aesthetics; Epilogue.

Erscheint lt. Verlag	18.11.2010
Zusatzinfo	1 Tables, black and white; 17 Halftones, black and white; 3 Line drawings, black and white
Verlagsort	Cambridge
Sprache	englisch
Maße	160 x 236 mm
Gewicht	1120 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Metaphysik / Ontologie
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie Altertum / Antike
ISBN-10	0-521-84180-1 / 0521841801
ISBN-13	978-0-521-84180-1 / 9780521841801
Zustand	Neuware