Inês Morais - Aesthetic realism

Cover illustration: Melisa Hasan

This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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This book is the result of my research at the University of London (20042006), at the University of Manchester (20062007), and at the University of Lisbon (20072009), as well as at the University of Maryland (USA) in September 2004. As the ancient Romans would recommend, I did not rush to publish it. Although there were issues of detail that I had to improve ten years later, the main project remains, to my mind, valid and necessary: to defend a consideration of aesthetic properties (including beauty) as genuine properties of things such as works of art. When we ascribe balance, delicacy, elegance, or beauty to a work, we are not talking about our reactions, we are talking about objective features which inspire reactions. It is this focus on the object (on objectivity) that this study intends to emphasize. And the emphasis is needed because much has been written in the opposite direction, as if the aesthetic properties were really in the eyes of the beholder.

I could have chosen to consider natural beauty and natural aesthetics, but that was not my concern. I restricted my attention to the aesthetic properties and the beauty of works of art, as considering natural beauty would be the subject for yet another book. I am interested here in the beauty created by artists, that is, the beauty or aesthetic value artists add to reality.

I was influenced by several people in readings and discussion, and some of them have commented on my work. I would like to thank, in particular, Chris Daly, Julian Dodd, Antnio M. Feij, Maria de Lourdes Ferraz, Stacie Friend, (the late) Peter Goldie, Peter Lamarque, Jerrold Levinson, David Liggins, Fraser MacBride, Anna Christina Ribeiro, Pedro Santos, Elisabeth Schellekens, and Miguel Tamen. I also thank two anonymous referees for comments and suggestions that improved the book.

My main research was funded by Fundao para a Cincia e Tecnologia [SFRH/BD/12682/2003] and I gratefully acknowledge FCTs support to my work. My one-month research at the University of Maryland was generously funded by Fundao Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento [Proj. R.VII-318/2004].

This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents, Maria do Cu Morais and Antnio Carlos Morais, and to my son, Tam.

Realism [is] a claim about what entities exist and a claim about their independent nature. (Devitt 1984, 14)