Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Crowther, Paul, The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Consciousness and Phantasy: Working with Husserl. (Routledge Research in Aesthetics) 178 pp. 2022:4 (Routledge, UK) * paper 2024 <679-63>
ISBN 978-1-032-07946-2 hard ¥40,991.- (税込) GB￡ 145.00 *
ISBN 978-1-032-08023-9 paper ¥11,304.- (税込) GB￡ 39.99 *

This is the first book dedicated to Husserl's aesthetics. Paul Crowther pieces together Husserl's ideas of phantasy and image and presents them as a unified and innovative account of aesthetic consciousness. He also shows how Husserl's ideas can be developed to solve problems in aesthetics, especially those related to visual art, literature, theatre, and nature.After outlining the major components of Husserl's phenomenological method, Crowther addresses the scope and structure of Husserl's notion of aesthetic consciousness. For Husserl, aesthetic consciousness in all its forms involves phantasy-where items or states of affairs are represented as if actually perceived or experienced, even though they are not, in fact, given in the present perceptual field. Husserl also makes some extraordinarily interesting links between aesthetic consciousness and nature, showing how natural things and environments become instigators of such consciousness when apprehended in the appropriate terms. This "unreality" of the object of aesthetic consciousness anticipates contemporary debates about pictorial representation and is also relevant to Husserl's accounts of literature and theatre.The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Consciousness and Phantasy will appeal to scholars and advanced students interested in aesthetics, philosophy of art, phenomenological aesthetics, and Husserl's philosophy.

Cappelletto, Chiara, Embodying Art: How We See, Think, Feel, and Create. Tr. by S. Fleck. 280 pp. 2022:11 (Columbia U. Pr., US) <679-62>
ISBN 978-0-231-19586-7 hard ¥24,948.- (税込) US$ 120.00
ISBN 978-0-231-19587-4 paper ¥6,237.- (税込) US$ 30.00

In recent years, neuroscientists have made ambitious attempts to explain artistic processes and spectatorship through brain imaging techniques. But can brain science really unravel the workings of art? Is the brain in fact the site of aesthetic appreciation?Embodying Art recasts the relationship between neuroscience and aesthetics and calls for shifting the focus of inquiry from the brain itself to personal experience in the world. Chiara Cappelletto presents close readings of neuroscientific and philosophical scholarship as well as artworks and art criticism, identifying their epistemological premises and theoretical consequences. She critiques neuroaesthetic reductionism and its assumptions about a mind/body divide, arguing that the brain is embodied and embedded in affective, cultural, and historical milieus.Cappelletto considers understandings of the human brain encompassing scientific, philosophical, and visual and performance arts discourses. She examines how neuroaesthetics has constructed its field of study, exploring the ways digital renderings and scientific data have been used to produce the brain as a cultural and visual object. Tracing the intertwined histories of brain science and aesthetic theory, Embodying Art offers a strikingly original and profound philosophical account of the human brain as a living artifact.

Duettmann, Alexander Garcia, So What, or How to Make Films with Words. (Superimpositions) 256 pp. 2023:1 (Northwestern U. Pr., US) <679-114>
ISBN 978-0-8101-4536-8 hard ¥20,790.- (税込) US$ 100.00 *
ISBN 978-0-8101-4535-1 paper ¥7,484.- (税込) US$ 36.00 *

A series of philosophical meditations on the nature of aesthetics across a wide array of filmmaking styles Images, whether filmic or not, cannot be replaced by words. Yet words can make images. This is the general thesis underlying So What, a collection of essays on canonical filmmakers like Luchino Visconti and Orson Welles; more experimental directors, such as Marguerite Duras and Albert Serra; and visual artists, including Hollis Frampton and Agnes Martin. Alexander GarcIa DUEttmann aims to make these films as if they did not precede his text, capturing their idea and experience. If the relationship between filmic image and text is a heterogeneous one, then this heterogeneity must leave a trace. This is why the book's chapters are organized not according to historical periods or on the basis of film theories but rather by single concepts that function like dictionary entries. The chapters adopt different forms, blurring the lines between art and philosophy. So What is a practical exercise in "making films with words," inviting readers to draw out insights from its conceptual play.So What compiles previously untranslated and hard-to-find essays into a single volume, one that represents the absorbing and singular thought process of a major contemporary philosopher.