Aesthetic Theories: Studies in the Philosophy of Art (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews Aesthetic Theories: Studies in the Philosophy o] Art. Ed. by Karl AsChenbrenner and Arnold Isenberg. (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965. Pp. xi + 491. $7.95.) Given the large number of good anthologies and paperbound books now available in aesthetics, one is naturally inclined to question the values of still another collection of readings . Such was my inclination as I approached this book of selections. However, I was pleased to find that---in addition to the usual selections from Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and so on--the editors have included several important but neglected works in traditional aesthetic theory. Among these are essays by Hutcheson, Diderot, Reid, Adam Smith, Francis Jeffrey, and Theodor Lipps. Professor Aschenbrenner translated Diderot's Encyclopedia article on beauty and Lipps' essay on empathy so that they could be included in this volume. The editors' governing aim has been to present the main tradition of aesthetic theory from Plato to Sartre. At the same time they have restricted their selections to philosophical works, as distinguished from the writings of artists, critics, historians, psychologists, and others who have contributed to aesthetics. The resulting collection of over twenty-five substantial readings amply testifies to the richness and continuity of traditional philosophical aesthetics. Through brief introductions, the editors relate each selection to this tradition and to the issues which are still alive in aesthetic theory. The one shortcoming in an otherwise very useful book is the paucity of bibliographical suggestions. JAMES F. DOYLE Claremont Men's College The Development o] Arabic Logic. By Nicholas Rescher. (Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964. Pp. 262. $6.50.) In the first part of this book Rescher offers a survey of Arabic logic, tracing its beginnings to around A.D.800. The discussion opens with a brief exposition of the Syriac Christian translation of late Alexandrian Aristotelianism into an Arabic setting. According to Professor Rescher, "The Arabic Aristotelians are thus the continuators of the work of the Hellenistic Greeks, and such Arabic-language scholars as al-F~r~bi, Avicenna, and Averroes are later links in a chain whose earlier members include such Greek-language scholars as Alexander of Aphrodisias, Porphyry, Themistius, and Ammonius" (p. 22). Rescher devotes a chapter to each of the following: (i) The "First Century" of Arabic logic, from 800 to 900, which is understood to have been a period mainly of transmission, translation, and assimilation. (ii) The flowering of Arabic logic which takes place between 900 and 1000, a period dominated by the School of Baghdad, and during which we witness the pursuit of logic for its own sake. It is generally acknowledged that the leading thinker here is al-Fg~r~bi. "By the end of the 10th century," Rescher writes, "Greek logic was not only Arabicized, but also on the way to being Islamized--both in the origin of its personnel and the geographical distribution of the foci of its pursuit" (p. 47). (iii) Next we come to the century of Avicenna (1000-1100). We are told that this period as a whole was one of stagnation, with the notable exception of the logical contributions of Avicenna. During this period the School of Baghdad was steadily approaching the point of exhaustion and death: "Avicenna dominated his century (otherwise barren) in influence and skill" (p. 50). Throughout this century, logic "is no longer studied via Aristotle's treatises, and logic books were no longer commentaries on Aristotle, but handbooks, more or less independent treatises covering the ground after their own fashion" (p. 52). (iv) We turn to the century of Averroes. Now the center of logical studies and philosophic initiative belongs to Muslim Spain. As Rescher says, and as is generally conceded, "Averroes was beyond question the towering figure of Arabic [338] ...