Table of Contents

Introduction.
Part One
1: Essential distinctions for art theorists
2: The cluster theory of art
3: Functional and procedural definitions of art
4: Non-Western art and art's definition
5: First art and art's definition
6: Aesthetic judgments, artworks, and functional beauty
7: Ellen Dissanayake's evolutionary aesthetic
8: Probably not the last word on the end of art
9: Is architecture an art?
Part Two
10: Interpreting contextualities
11: Authors' intentions, literary interpretation, and literary value
12: True interpretations
13: Relativism in interpretation
14: Replies to arguments suggesting that critics' strong evaluations could not be soundly deduced
15: Truth-values and metaphors
16: The expression theory again
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

A useful and stimulating book. The sixteen essays collected in it not only give 'philosophical perspecives on art', as the title promises, but also offer sharp analyses that still form a unity
*Christian Helmut Wenzel, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews*