Aesthetic Pursuits

Book excerpt: Jerrold Levinson, one of the most prominent philosophers of art today, presents a new collection of essays, following on from his four previous collections, Music, Art and Metaphysics (1990), The Pleasures of Aesthetics (1996), Contemplating Art (2006), and Musical Concerns (2015). Aesthetic Pursuits specifically complements Levinson's last volume, Musical Concerns, by collecting recent essays not concerned with music, but instead focusing on literature, film, and visual art, while addressing issues of humour, beauty, and the emotions. The essays in Aesthetic Pursuits, which are wide-ranging, will appeal strongly to aestheticians, art lovers, and philosophers alike. The volume contains seven previously unpublished essays by Levinson, in which the author critically engages with notable contemporary contributions to aesthetic theory.