Being for Beauty

For centuries, philosophers have identified beauty with what brings pleasure. Dominic McIver Lopes challenges this interpretation by offering an entirely new theory of beauty - that beauty engages us in action, in concert with others, in the context of social networks - and sheds light on why aesthetic engagement is crucial for quality of life.

Dominic McIver Lopes FRSC is Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and author of six books and a series of papers that examine the meaning and values of images, technology in the arts, and the nature of art and the arts. His current work looks beyond the arts to understand the human importance of our aesthetic practices.

Part I
1: Beings for Beauty
2: Getting Practical
Part II
3: To Seize upon the Applause of the Heart
4: Six Degrees of Separation
Part III
5: Strength and Warranties of Skill
6: Infrastructures of Aesthetic Agency
7: Hundred Mile Aesthetics
Part IV
8: By Happy Alchemy of Mind
9: Endless to Dispute
10: Beauty, Naturally
Part V
11: Getting Personal
12: Building Better Aesthetic Agents