Robert J. Yanal's Books

Institutions of Art

Reconsiderations of George Dickie's Philosophy

By: Robert J. Yanal

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Institutions of Art

Reconsiderations of George Dickie's Philosophy

By: Robert J. Yanal

George Dickie has been one of the most innovative, influential, and controversial philosophers of art working in the analytical tradition in the past twenty-five years. Dickie's arguments against the various theories of aesthetic attitude, aesthetic perception, and aesthetic experience virtually brought classical theories of the aesthetic to a halt. His institutional theory of art was perhaps the most discussed proposal in aesthetics during the 1970s and 1980s, inspiring both supporters who produced variations on the theory as well as passionate detractors who thought the theory thoroughly wrongheaded. Dickie has also written widely on the history of aesthetics, and his work ranks among the best examples of analytic aesthetics. The philosophy of George Dickie continues to provoke reaction and reflection. The essays in this collection pay homage not only to Dickie's ideas but also to his influence. A brief biography of George Dickie and a bibliography of his works complete the volume.

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Page Count

209

Publisher

Penn State Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0271039922

ISBN 13

9780271039923

Hitchcock as Philosopher

By: Robert J. Yanal

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Hitchcock as Philosopher

By: Robert J. Yanal

The films of Alfred Hitchcock deal heavily with psychological and philosophical themes, and one needn't look very far into the canon to find them. In Psycho, for example, the personality metamorphosis in Marion Crane that leads her into grand larceny is a pale double of the murderous oedipal divide in Norman Bates. In The Birds, overbearing natural mutations turn what might have been a "creature feature" into a film about fear of the unknowable. This book looks at 12 Hitchcock films and the positions they put forth on three problem areas of epistemology: deception, knowledge of mind, and problematic knowledge of the external world. These philosophical concepts are explained and woven into the author's thorough and thought-provoking discussion of each film. Descartes and Wittengenstein star; Plato, Locke, Hume, Kant and Kierkegaard also make appearances in this new "philosopher's cut" of the master's works.

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Page Count

217

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

0786482303

ISBN 13

9780786482306

Paradoxes of Emotion and Fiction

By: Robert J. Yanal

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Paradoxes of Emotion and Fiction

By: Robert J. Yanal

How can we experience real emotions when viewing a movie or reading a novel or watching a play when we know the characters whose actions have this effect on us do not exist? This is a conundrum that has puzzled philosophers for a long time, and in this book Robert Yanal both canvasses previously proposed solutions to it and offers one of his own. First formulated by Samuel Johnson, the paradox received its most famous answer from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who advised his readers to engage in a "willing suspension of disbelief." More recently, philosophers have argued that we are irrational in emoting toward fiction, or that we do not emote toward fiction but rather toward factual counterparts, or that we do not have real but only quasi-emotion toward fiction, generated by our playing games of make-believe. All of these proposed solutions are critically reviewed. Finding these answers unsatisfactory, Yanal offers an alternative, providing a new version of what has been dubbed "thought theory." On this theory, mere thoughts not believed true are seen as the functional equivalent of belief at least insofar as stimulating emotion is concerned. The emoter's disbelief in the actuality of components of the thoughts must be rendered relatively inactive. Such emotion is real and typically has the character of being richly generated yet unconsummated. The book extends this theory also to resolving other paradoxes arising from emotional response to fiction: how we feel suspense over what comes next in a story even when we are re-reading it for a second or third time; and how we take pleasure in narratives, such as tragedy, that excite unpleasant emotions such as fear, pity, or horror.

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Page Count

151

Publisher

Penn State Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0271040122

ISBN 13

9780271040127

Hitchcock as Philosopher

By: Robert J. Yanal

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Hitchcock as Philosopher

By: Robert J. Yanal

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N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

217

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

0786482303

ISBN 13

9780786482306

Book's by Robert J. Yanal

Institutions of Art

Institutions of Art

Hitchcock as Philosopher

Hitchcock as Philosopher

Paradoxes of Emotion and Fiction

Paradoxes of Emotion and Fiction

Hitchcock as Philosopher

Hitchcock as Philosopher

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