Feeling and Reason in the Arts

First published in 1985, Feeling and Reason in the Arts raises an important question-how can a central role for the arts, and in particular the arts in education, be justified? The arts and the artistic judgments are often expressions of individual feeling and value, and it is a common belief that this necessarily implies a subjectivism that is incompatible with the notion that artistic judgments can be rationally supported. If this belief is correct there is clearly a problem about how the arts can be justified in education. This book shows that this dilemma can be resolved only if one recognises that it is created by incoherently narrow and oversimple conceptions of rational justification and feeling. With more adequate conceptions, a sound argument can be provided for the place and value of the arts, in education, and in society more generally. Clearly these issues are of crucial practical relevance at a time when the arts are under threat. This exposition of arguments in their support is important and timely. This is an interesting work for scholars and researchers of arts and philosophy.

David Best (at the time of the original publication) was with department of philosophy, university of Swansea.

Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Response 2. Reason 3. Questions 4. Differences 5. Free Expression 6. Creativity 7. Feeling 8. Creator and Spectator 9. Two Attitudes 10. The Particularity of Feeling 11. The Aesthetic and the Artistic 12. Art and Life References Index