The Creation of Art: New Essays in Philosophical Aesthetics

Although creativity, from Plato onwards, has been recognized as a topic in philosophy, it has been overshadowed by investigations of the meanings and values of works of art. In this collection of essays a distinguished roster of philosophers of art redress this trend. The subjects discussed include the nature of creativity and the process of artistic creation; the role that creative making should play in our understanding and evaluation of art; relations between concepts of creation and creativity; and ideas of tradition, metaphor, genius, imagination and genre. This is an important collection that will be eagerly sought by philosophers of art as well as theorists in art history, cinema studies and literary criticism.

• Aesthetics is a good area for us because of interdisciplinary interest • Strong, international team of contributors • The topic (creativity) has been neglected in previous volumes

Acknowledgements; Introduction: the creation of art: issues and perspectives Berys Gaut and Paisley Livingston; 1. How to create a fictional character Peter Lamarque; 2. Drawings as drawn: an approach to creation in an art Patrick Maynard; 3. Pentimento Paisley Livingston; 4. Exemplary originality: genius, universality and individuality Paul Guyer; 5. The inexplicable: some thoughts after Kant Ted Cohen; 6. Creativity and imagination Berys Gaut; 7. Explanations of creativity David Novitz; 8. Culture, convention and creativity Stein Haugom Olsen; 9. Art, creativity and tradition Noël Carroll; 10. Elster on artistic creativity Jerrold Levinson; 11. The transfiguration of classical Hollywood norms: on Von Sternberg’s last films with Dietrich George Wilson; List of contributors; Index.

‘… an important contribution to current research in the philosophy of art. It fills a large and regrettable gap.’

– Dominic Lopes, University of British Columbia