Principles of Aesthetics

Dewitt H. Parker was a professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan.

He published works on metaphysics, aesthetics, and ethics.

The Principles of Aesthetics is a classic and considered his most important work.

He says: This book has grown out of lectures to students at the University of Michigan and embodies my effort to express to them the nature and meaning of art.

In writing it, I have sought to maintain scientific accuracy, yet at the same time to preserve freedom of style and something of the inspiration of the subject.

While intended primarily for students, the book will appeal generally, I hope, to people who are interested in the intelligent appreciation of art.

For the broader philosophy of art, my debt is heaviest, I believe, to the artists and philosophers during the period from Herder to Hegel, who gave to the study its greatest development, and, among contemporaries, to Croce and Lipps.

In addition, I have drawn freely upon the more special investigations of recent times.