In recent years, experience has been one of the most ambiguous, evasive, and controversial terms in myriad disciplines including epistemology, religion, literary theory, and philosophical aesthetics. Its association with the subjective consciousness has deprived it of the cognitive status of human knowledge. DEGREESIArt and Experience DEGREESR aims to grasp a firmer hold on this elusive concept, via essays written by a distinguished group of international scholars who have rediscovered the foundation of experience and restored its cognitive status in understanding our cultural activities....

This exceptional new collection comprises 13 new essays on the nature and definability of art. Presenting a wide offering of contemporary philosophical perspectives--including theoretical, historical, cross-cultural, and evolutionary--Art and Essence offers thorough critical discussion on the extensive contemporary philosophical literature on the subject. The work here contrasts the idea of theorizing about why we make and consume art with that of defining it; furthermore, the authors consider the possibility that art has no definable essence and discusses differences and...