A history of aesthetic / Bernard Bosanquet

Chapter I PROPOSED TREATMENT, AND ITS CONNECTION WITH THE DEFINITION OF BEAUTY -- Chapter II THE CREATION OF A POETIC WORLD, AND ITS FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH REFLECTION -- Chapter III THE FUNDAMENTAL OUTLINES OF GREEK THEORY CONCERNING THE BEAUTIFUL -- Chapter IV SIGNS OF PROGRESS IN GREEK THEORY CONCERNING THE BEAUTIFUL -- Chapter V ALEXANDRIAN AND GRECO-ROMAN CULTURE TO THE REIGN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT -- Chapter VI SOME TRACES OF THE CONTINUITY OF THE ÆSTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE AGES -- Chapter VII A COMPARISON OF DANTE AND SHAKESPEARE IN RESPECT OF SOME FORMAL CHARACTERISTICS -- Chapter VIII THE PROBLEM OF MODERN ÆSTHETIC PHILOSOPHY -- Chapter IX THE DATA OF MODERN ÆSTHETIC PHILOSOPHY -- Chapter X KANT?THE PROBLEM BROUGHT TO A FOCUS -- Chapter XI THE FIRST STEPS OF A CONCRETE SYNTHESIS? SCHILLER AND GOETHE -- Chapter XII OBJECTIVE IDEALISM?SCHELLING AND HEGEL –Chapter XIII -- Chapter XIV THE METHODICAL COMPLETION OF OBJECTIVE IDEALISM -- Chapter XV BEGINNINGS OF A THEORETICAL REUNION OF CONTENT AND EXPRESSION

After more than ten years teaching ancient Greek history and philosophy at University College, Oxford, the British philosopher and political theorist Bernard Bosanquet (1848–1923) resigned from his post to spend more time writing. He was particularly interested in contemporary social theory, but he was also concerned with philosophical questions about art and aesthetics. In this area, Bosanquet had been influenced by William Morris (1834–96) and John Ruskin (1819–1900), as well as the German philosopher Hegel (1770–1831), and their ideas underlie this book, published in 1892. Bosanquet considered aesthetic theory to be a branch of philosophy, and this work focuses on the evolution of theories about beauty. He begins by considering influential ancient Greek and Roman concepts before seeking out the aesthetic consciousness of the middle ages. The latter part of the book is concerned with theories from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophers.