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Literary examples in analytic aesthetics

the claim of the empirical

Andrea Selleri

pp. 207-223

Analytic aestheticians often invoke specific literary works as illustrations of broader theoretical issues, making apparent a tension between the philosophical ideal of analysing discrete concepts in a clear fashion and the critical ideal of doing justice to the works themselves. This chapter argues that to gain in neatness by losing in descriptive power is a bad bargain for philosophy, by analysing some instances in which work in aesthetics has been vitiated by an insufficient concern with the particularities of the literary works used as examples. There follows an outline of some ways in which a fuller acquaintance with literary studies may help aestheticians strike a better balance between clear-headedness about the general and fidelity to the empirical.

Publication details

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-33147-8_11

Full citation:

Selleri, A. (2016)., Literary examples in analytic aesthetics: the claim of the empirical, in A. Selleri & P. Gaydon (eds.), Literary studies and the philosophy of literature, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 207-223.

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