The Origins of Aesthetic Thought in Ancient Greece: Matter, Sensation, and Experience

by James I. Porter

Overview

This is the first modern attempt to put aesthetics back on the map in classical studies. James Porter traces the origins of aesthetic thought and inquiry in their broadest manifestations as they evolved from before Homer down to the fourth-century and then into later antiquity, with an emphasis on Greece in its earlier phases. Greek aesthetics, he argues, originated in an attention to the senses and to matter as opposed to the formalism and idealism that were enshrined by Plato and Aristotle and through whose lens most subsequent views of ancient art and aesthetics have typically been filtered. Treating aesthetics in this way can help us reveal the commonly shared basis of the diverse arts of antiquity. Reorienting our view of the ancient vocabularies of art and experience around matter and sensation, this book dramatically changes how we look upon the ancient achievements in these same areas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521841801
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/18/2010
Pages:	626
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

James I. Porter is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Irvine. Recent publications include Classical Pasts: The Classical Traditions of Greece and Rome (edited, 2006), and The Invention of Dionysus: An Essay on the Birth of Tragedy (2000).

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Foundations: Aesthetics, Formalism, and Materialism: 1. Aesthetic thought in antiquity; 2. Form and formalism; 3. Matter and appearances; Part II. The Nascent Aesthetic Languages of the Sixth to Fourth Centuries BCE: 4. The rise of aesthetic reflection in the fifth century; 5. The evidence of Aristophanes and Gorgias; 6. The music of the voice; 7. The voice of music; 8. Visual experience; Part III. Broader Perspectives: 9. Sublime monuments in ancient aesthetics; Epilogue.

Editorial Reviews

"... a lengthy, learned, and bold book ... tremendously stimulating ...'
Jane Heath, The Expository Times

From the Publisher