The Art Experience: An Introduction to Philosophy and the Arts

The Art Experience: An Introduction to Philosophy and the Arts takes readers on an engaging and accessible journey that explores a series of fundamental questions about the nature of art and aesthetic value. The book’s 12 chapters explore three questions:

• What makes something a work of art?
• How should we experience art to get the most out of it?
• Once we understand art, how should we evaluate whether it is good or bad?

Philosophical theory is illustrated with concrete examples: the paintings of Frida Kahlo, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, the masks of the Nso people, and many others. Classic questions are balanced with cutting-edge challenges, such as Linda Nochlin’s work on the exclusion of women from the artistic canon.

The Art Experience presupposes no prior knowledge of philosophy or art, and it will be of interest to any reader seeking an accessible and engaging introduction to this field. Along the way, readers learn how philosophical theories can affect our real-world experiences with painting, music, theater, and many other art forms.

Key Features

• Accessible for any college student: assumes no knowledge of philosophy, art theory, or any artistic medium
• Organizes topics conceptually, rather than historically, allowing students to more easily grasp the core issues themselves rather than tracing their historical evolution
• Offers readers a large number of contemporary examples and a consistent focus on the way theory can affect people’s real-world experiences with art

• Explores questions about bias - for example, whether the artistic canon has excluded some groups unfairly and whether definitions of art are Western-biased

Alex Rajczi teaches at Claremont McKenna College, where he is the Deborah and Kenneth Novack ’67 Professor of Ethics and Leadership and a George R. Roberts Fellow. He is the author of The Ethics of Universal Health Insurance (Oxford UP, 2019).