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How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration
Contributor(s): Winner, Ellen (Author)
ISBN: 0190863358     ISBN-13: 9780190863357
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
OUR PRICE:   $38.94  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: November 2018
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Art | Criticism & Theory
- Psychology | Cognitive Psychology & Cognition
- Philosophy | Aesthetics
Dewey: 700.19
LCCN: 2018010721
Physical Information: 1" H x 6.4" W x 9.5" (1.50 lbs) 320 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
There is no end of talk and of wondering about 'art' and 'the arts.' This book examines a number of questions about the arts (broadly defined to include all of the arts). Some of these questions come from philosophy. Examples include:

- What makes something art?
- Can anything be art?
- Do we experience real emotions from the arts?
- Why do we seek out and even cherish sorrow and fear from art when we go out of our way to avoid these very emotions in real life?
- How do we decide what is good art? Do aesthetic judgments have any objective truth value?
- Why do we devalue fakes even if we -- indeed, even the experts--- can't tell them apart from originals?
- Does fiction enhance our empathy and understanding of others? Is art-making therapeutic?

Others are common sense questions that laypersons wonder about. Examples include:

- Does learning to play music raise a child's IQ?
- Is modern art something my kid could do?
- Is talent a matter of nature or nurture?

This book examines puzzles about the arts wherever their provenance - as long as there is empirical research using the methods of social science (interviews, experimentation, data collection, statistical analysis) that can shed light on these questions. The examined research reveals how ordinary
people think about these questions, and why they think the way they do - an inquiry referred to as intuitive aesthetics. The book shows how psychological research on the arts has shed light on and often offered surprising answers to such questions.