Arts of the Beautiful

by Etienne Gilson

Published 13 July 2000
With his usual lucidity, Etienne Gilson addresses the idea that "art is the making of beauty for beauty's own sake." By distinguishing between aesthetics, which promotes art as a form of knowledge, and philosophy, which focuses on the presence of the artist's own talent or genius, Gilson maintains that art belongs to a different category entirely, the category of "making." Gilson's intellectually stimulating meditation on the relation of beauty and art is indispensable to philosophers and artists alike.

-- First paperback edition.
-- In this engaging companion to Arts of the Beautiful, Etienne Gilson turns his attention toward the creative process. Distinguishing the arts of the beautiful from the merely functional, Gilson proceeds to argue that the limits of art are imposed only by the materials which the artist uses to create.
-- A world-renowned philosopher and historian, Etienne Gilson was a Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the Sorbonne and at the College de France. He helped to found the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of many works, including Painting and Reality, The Philosopher and Theology, and The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy.
-- First published by Charles Scribner's Sons (1966).