Kirjahaku

These essays, half of them appearing here for the first time, address issues concerning the two key singularities that Kant identified in aesthetics: artistic creativity and aesthetic judgement. Ranging from Kant himself to contemporary debates, from song to conceptual art, from ethics to atheism, from function to failure, Aaron Ridley explores the ways in which the one-off character of creativity and judgement may defy our ordinary expectations of what an explanation should be like. Intended equally for specialists and students, this collection offers a distinctive approach to aesthetics that will be of interest to any reader concerned with philosophical reflection upon the arts.

Nietzsche is often held to be an extreme sceptic about human agency, keen to debunk it along every dimension. He dismisses the ideas of freedom, autonomy and morality, we are told, and even the very existence of agents or selves. This book sets out the opposite view. Ridley argues that Nietzsche is committed to an 'expressivist' conception of agency, a conception that allows him to develop highly distinctive accounts not only of freedom, autonomy and morality, but also of selfhood. In the course of the argument, the text revisits a variety of central Nietzschean themes including self-creation, the sovereign individual, will to power, Kantian and Christian morality, and amor fati often to unexpected effect. The Nietzsche who emerges from this book has a clear, if demanding, conception of human agency and a robust commitment to the value of human excellence in all of its forms. This comprehensive study of Nietzsche and the expressivist conception of agency is important reading for all Nietzsche scholars and philosophers of action, but is also of more general interest to academics and students in philosophy.

In this collection of eighteen essays, two-thirds of them appearing here for the first time, Aaron Ridley addresses the full range of Nietzsche's aesthetics, from his discussions of tragedy, music, and language to his conceptions of taste, beauty, and the sublime. Some of the essays are exegetical; some are critical (hence the 'quarrels' referred to in the title); some bring his thought into contact with other thoughts and thinkers; while others bring him into contact with specific artists and their art. Intended equally for specialists and students, this volume contributes to the study of an aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy that remains surprisingly under-explored.

Nietzsche is one of the most important modern philosophers and his writings on the nature of art are amongst the most influential of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This GuideBook introduces and assesses:Nietzsche's life and the background to his writings on art the ideas and texts of his works which contribute to art, including The Birth of Tragedy, Human, All Too Human and Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche's continuing importance to philosophy and contemporary thought.This GuideBook will be essential reading for all students coming to Nietzsche for the first time.

Nietzsche is one of the most important modern philosophers and his writings on the nature of art are amongst the most influential of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This GuideBook introduces and assesses:Nietzsche's life and the background to his writings on art the ideas and texts of his works which contribute to art, including The Birth of Tragedy, Human, All Too Human and Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche's continuing importance to philosophy and contemporary thought.This GuideBook will be essential reading for all students coming to Nietzsche for the first time.

New and distinctive approaches to five central topics in musical aesthetics are provided in this outstanding book. The topics are: understanding, representation, expression, performance and profundity. The theme of the book is the failure of the orthodox view - that pieces of music are more or less self-contained structures of sound - to account for some important features of our musical experience, and to explain why music should matter to us. In exposing and correcting that failure, the book introduces readers to the main problems and positions in the philosophy of music, proposes fresh solutions to those problems, and offers innovative approaches to the philosophy of song, to musical ontology, and to questions about the value of music. Each chapter is built around a single musical work, which provides a focus for the reader. Features * Broad, accessible introductory overview to philosophy of music * Original and stimulating insights

New and distinctive approaches to five central topics in musical aesthetics are provided in this outstanding book. The topics are: understanding, representation, expression, performance and profundity. The theme of the book is the failure of the orthodox view - that pieces of music are more or less self-contained structures of sound - to account for some important features of our musical experience, and to explain why music should matter to us. In exposing and correcting that failure, the book introduces readers to the main problems and positions in the philosophy of music, proposes fresh solutions to those problems, and offers innovative approaches to the philosophy of song, to musical ontology, and to questions about the value of music. Each chapter is built around a single musical work, which provides a focus for the reader. Features * Broad, accessible introductory overview to philosophy of music * Original and stimulating insights

Aaron Ridley explores Nietzsche's mature ethical thought as expressed in his masterpiece On the Genealogy of Morals. Taking seriously the use that Nietzsche makes of human types, Ridley arranges his book thematically around the six characters who loom largest in that work—the slave, the priest, the philosopher, the artist, the scientist, and the noble. By elucidating what the Genealogy says about these figures, he achieves a persuasive new assessment of Nietzsche's ethics. Ridley's intellectually supple interpretation reveals Nietzsche's ethical position to be deeper and more interesting than is often supposed: the relation, for instance, between Nietzsche's ideal of the noble and the ascetic or priestly conscience does not emerge as a stark opposition but as a rich interplay between the tensions inherent in each. Equally, he shows that certain under-appreciated confusions in Nietzsche's thought reveal much about the positive aspects of the philosopher's moral vision. The only book devoted entirely to the Genealogy, Nietzsche's Conscience offers a sympathetic but tough-minded critical reading of the philosopher's most important work. Delivered in clear and vigorous language and employing a broadly analytical approach, Ridley's commentary makes Nietzsche's reflections on morality more accessible than they have been hitherto.