For The Love of Beauty.For The Love Of Beauty Arthur Pontynen Transaction Books 390 Campus Drive, Somerset, NJ 08873 0765803011 $49.95 transactionpub.com For The Love Of Beauty: Art, History, And The Moral Foundations Of Aesthetic Judgment by Arthur Pontynen (Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin--Oshkosh) is a challenging and scholarly view of Western art history through the touchstone touchstone Black, silica-containing stone used in assaying to determine the purity of gold and silver. The metal to be assayed is rubbed on the touchstone, and then a sample of metal of known purity is rubbed on the stone right next to it. of a prerequisite search, even a quest for Verb 1. quest for - go in search of or hunt for; "pursue a hobby" quest after, go after, pursue look for, search, seek - try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of; "The police are searching for clues"; "They are searching for the "the good, the true, and the beautiful." Professor Pontynen questions the value of art in a world framed by the assumption of dogmatic dog·mat·ic adj. 1. Relating to, characteristic of, or resulting from dogma. 2. Characterized by an authoritative, arrogant assertion of unproved or unprovable principles. See Synonyms at dictatorial. aesthetics, instead of validating the search for truth, beauty, and goodness. Professor Pontynen applies this thesis or critical reference to Western art and art history from Classicism classicism, a term that, when applied generally, means clearness, elegance, symmetry, and repose produced by attention to traditional forms. It is sometimes synonymous with excellence or artistic quality of high distinction. to Postmodernism postmodernism, term used to designate a multitude of trends—in the arts, philosophy, religion, technology, and many other areas—that come after and deviate from the many 20th-cent. movements that constituted modernism. . Further, he grounds his observations with examples from history, philosophy, aesthetics, and specific works of art. There are forty black and white photo reproductions of art works incorporated into the text. For The Love Of Beauty is a seminal, 364-page work of critical thought intended to challenge the reader to explore further those assumptions upon which all notions of beauty, truth, and goodness are based. It is a great scholarly text of particular interest to philosophers, art historians, as well as students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in ethics, aesthetics, and intellectual history. |
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