Abstract

In this book Robert Stecker sets out to answer three basic questions in the philosophy of art: What is art? What is it to understand a work of art? And what is the value of art? Stecker addresses each question in turn and delivers what he claims to be “a unified, if incomplete, philosophy of art—a theory of the nature and functions of art and of the practice of interpreting and appreciating it”. His strategy is to discuss thoroughly recent contributions to the debate concerning each of these questions and to put forward his own alternative answers. This leads to an extensive and detailed discussion of the journal literature on each of these subjects and considerable effort is spent both presenting and evaluating this literature.