Natural Beauty was selected for the Choice Outstanding Academic Title list for 2008!

Natural Beauty presents a bold new philosophical account of the principles involved in making aesthetic judgments about natural objects. It surveys historical and modern accounts of natural beauty and weaves elements derived from those accounts into a "syncretic theory" that centers on key features of aesthetic experience—specifically, features that sustain and reward attention. In this way, Moore's theory sets itself apart from both the purely cognitive and the purely emotive approaches that have dominated natural aesthetics until now. Natural Beauty shows why aesthetic appreciation of works of art and aesthetic appreciation of nature can be mutually reinforcing; that is, how they are cooperative rather than rival enterprises. Moore also makes a compelling case for how and why the experience of natural beauty can contribute to the larger project of living a good life.

Comments:

"In 1992 Mothersill believed that philosophers had not yet done their best work on beauty . . . Ronald Moore has answered Mothersill’s challenge with a book that draws its central ideas from the history of philosophy, from Plato and Aristotle through Hume and Kant, to John Dewey and Monroe Beardsley. Moore has engaged in conversation nearly every major Western philosopher on beauty in the writing of his book. The result is a tour de force on beauty that captures the best of the canon and thrusts research on the subject in a new direction. Natural Beauty: A Theory of Aesthetics Beyond the Arts may be the most important book on beauty since Kant, The Critique of Judgment." - Dan Vaillancourt, Loyola University Chicago in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Volume 66, Number 3, Summer 2008, pages 303-305

"Written in clear and elegant prose, this book is a welcome contribution to debates about beauty wherever we find it. Moore provides a refreshing reminder of what aesthetics can accomplish when it takes seriously both its history and the uniqueness of aesthetic experience." - Jonathan Maskit, Denison University

"Natural Beauty is a well-balanced, wonderfully written, systematic and thoroughly researched book. Moore's positive theory is so well developed and original that this book should immediately become one of the most important books in nature aesthetics. And because it takes aim at the basic concepts of aesthetic judgment, aesthetic experience and aesthetic value, it will also have an impact on the wider field of aesthetics. A genuinely impressive performance." - John Andrew Fisher, University of Colorado, Boulder

"In this wonderfully written book Ronald Moore provides a rigorous and historically informed syncretic account of environmental aesthetics that may free us from having to choose between scientific and emotive accounts of natural beauty. I cannot wait for the debates which will follow this engaging contribution." - Andrew Light, Editor, Ethics, Place, and Environment 

"Ron Moore's rich and subtle defense of a syncretic aesthetics of nature advances the philosophical conversation about natural beauty while empowering ordinary appreciators to more confidently delight in nature and art." - Stephanie Ross, University of Missouri St. Louis

"Moore has written a truly impressive book on the very compelling subject of natural beauty. He surveys the most prominent views on the subject and draws a line that both sythesizes and advances their competing claims. In Moore's view, one's appreciation of the beauty in artifacts informs an appreciation of the beauty in nature and vice versa. It is all good, as is this clearly written, cogently argued, well informed, informative book." - J.M. Carvalho, Villanova University - in Choice

Ronald Moore is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington.

Academics please note that this is a title classified as having a restricted allocation of complimentary copies. While the availability of bound complimentary copies is restricted to desk copies only, electronic complimentary copies are readily available for those professors wishing to consider this title for possible course adoption. Should you choose to adopt the book after viewing an electronic copy we will be happy to provide a bound desk copy.

Table of Contents: [Back to Top]

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: Appreciating Nature as Natural

The Problem of Appreciation
Glass Flowers 
Warhol and Blaschka

Chapter 2: Conceptualism and Non-conceptualism

Conceptualism and Its Problems 
Non-conceptualism and Its Problems 
Syncretic Aesthetics

Chapter 3: The Historical Roots of Syncretism: Early Developments

Ancient Views 
Medieval and Renaissance Views 
Early Modern Developments

Chapter 4: The Historical Roots of Syncretism: Modern Developments

Kant and the Subjective Turn
Schopenhauer and the Aesthetic Attitude 
Recent Aesthetic Experience Theory
Critical Responses to This Theory
Where This Leaves Us

Chapter 5: Aesthetic Experience Revisited

Cold Plums
Hunkered-down Aesthetic Experience
Grains of Sand

Chapter 6: The Framing Paradox

Nature Unframed
Nature Framed
The Paradox and Its Resolution

Chapter 7: Syncretic Regard—Part I

Judges and “True Judges”
The Natureworld
Fundamental Elements in Judgments of Natural Beauty

Typal and General Judgment

Chapter 8: Syncretic Regard—Part II

Intensive Beauty
Formal Beauty
Formal Beauty and Formalism
Connective Beauty
Elaborative Imagination

Reciprocity: Learning from Each Other
Inhibition: Getting in Each Other’s Way

Chapter 9: Patterns of Appreciation and Aesthetic Development

Carlson’s Inventory
The Place of Syncretic Theory
Growing Up Aesthetically

Chapter 10: Theoretical Implications and Conclusion

Layers of Response
Hard Questions
Conclusion

References

Index