The Intimate Philosophy of Art by John Armstrong

Unlike, say, Ted Cohen's Jokes, a philosophical study of jokes that is itself funny, this book is neither romantic nor sexy. Armstrong's primary focus is on long-term romantic love (i.e., between sexual partners), but he often veers into discussing fraternal, parental, divine, and altruistic love, and he takes a page from Wittgenstein to argue that there is no one essence uniting all the ways we use the word love.

Armstrong calls this approach''pandoxist,'' which at its best is breezy and refreshing, and at its worst seems to be an excuse for not examining views critically enough. In general, the goal seems to be a gathering of miscellaneous and diverse ideas from thinkers, novelists, and artists from Augustine to Freud put to service towards a study of our most powerful emotion. He critiques Plato's''myth of original unity,'' suggesting that the right attitude may more important than the right person contemplates Stendahl's beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder theory of''crystallization'' and ponders love's relationship to charity, the meaning of life and, much too briefly, sexuality. Moving easily between the intimacies of personal experiences and lucid, accessible philosophical reflection, the author acts as a sensitive and persuasive guide.In this meditative but somewhat murky philosophical account of love, Armstrong aims to develop a''mature conception'' of the emotion by exploring a different love-related theme in each chapter of this slim volume. In this book, the author describes the resources we each need to cultivate in order to enjoy painting and architecture resources such as reverie, attention and the investment of emotion. There is no access to art except in private - in looking, thinking and feeling in the presence of an individual work. perhaps this is both the most important and most neglected aspect of thinking about art. How many of us have stopped before a famous painting or building only to realise, with quiet disappointment, that we can't quite see what the fuss is about? What do we have to do - beyond just staring - to get the most out of art? How do we come to develop an attachment to individual works and find them deeply fascinating? How do they come to matter to us? While many have diligently directed attention to questions in art history, theory or criticism, the author, in a powerful and original shift of focus, considers the roots of our personal engagement with art.

The Intimate Philosophy of Art by John Armstrong