New Directions in Aesthetics

Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor develops an inclusive theory that integrates psychological, aesthetic, and ethical issues relating to humor. • Offers an enlightening and accessible foray into the serious business of humor • Reveals how standard theories of humor fail to explain its true nature and actually support traditional prejudices against humor as being antisocial, irrational, and foolish • Argues that humor's benefits overlap significantly with those of philosophy • Includes a foreword by Robert Mankoff, Cartoon Editor of The New Yorker

THE ART OF COMICS The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Introduction is the first-ever collection of essays published in English devoted to the philosophical questions raised by the art of comics. The volume, which includes a preface by the renowned comics author Warren Ellis, contains ten cutting-edge essays on a range of philosophical topics raised by comics and graphic novels. These include the definition of comics, the nature of comics genres, the relationship between comics and other arts such as film and literature, the way words and pictures combine in comics, comics authorship, the "language" of comics, and the metaphysics of comics. The book also contains an in-depth introduction by the co-editors which provides an overview of both the book and its subject, as well as a brief history of comics and an overview of extant work on the philosophy of comics. In an area of growing philosophical interest, this volume constitutes a great leap forward in the development of this fast-expanding field, and makes a major contribution to the philosophy of art.

Four Arts of Photography explores the history of photography through the lens of philosophy and proposes a new scholarly understanding of the art form for the 21st century. • Re-examines the history of art photography through four major photographic movements and with case studies of representative images • Employs a top-down, theory to case approach, as well as a bottom-up, case to theory approach • Advances a new theory regarding the nature of photography that is grounded in technology but doesn't place it in opposition to painting • Includes commentaries by two leading philosophers of photography, Diarmuid Costello and Cynthia A. Freeland

The Possibility of Culture: Pleasure and Moral Development in Kant's Aesthetics presents an in-depth exploration and deconstruction of Kant's depiction of the ways in which aesthetic pursuits can promote personal moral development. • Presents an in-depth exploration of the connection between Kant's aesthetics and his views on moral development • Reveals the links between Kant's aesthetics and his anthropology and moral psychology • Explores Kant's notion of genius and his views on the connections between the social aspects of taste and moral development • Addresses aspects of Kant's ethical theory that will interest scholars working in ethics and moral psychology