• The problem of perfect fakes
    In Anthony O'Hear (ed.), Philosophy and the Arts, Cambridge University Press. 2013.
  •  69
    Goethe and Wittgenstein -- Criticism without theory -- Wittgenstein's romantic inheritance -- Arnold and the socratic personality -- The dissolution of goodness : measure for measure and classical ethics -- Lamarque and Olsen on literature and truth -- The definition of 'art' -- Poetry and abstraction -- Larkin's 'Aubade'.
  •  96
    Why ‘art’ doesn't have two senses
    British Journal of Aesthetics 31 (3): 214-221. 1991.
  •  9
    The Philosophy of Poetry, edited by John Gibson: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. ix + 253, £40 (review)
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 95 (1): 193-196. 2017.
  •  36
  •  93
    Poetry and abstraction
    British Journal of Aesthetics 36 (1): 1-15. 1996.
  •  9
    Lines to Time: A Poem by V. Penelope Pelizzon
    Philosophy and Literature 40 (1): 1-33. 2016.
    This essay explores a modern American poem—its verse form, imagery, diction, and rhythm, and, in particular, its cultural echoes, resonances, and overtones. I examine the poem’s explicit invocation of Apelles and crow mythology, but I also show that the implicit context from which it arises, and the one that allows it to speak with the great- est fullness and power, is work that Shakespeare wrote or published between 1606 and 1609. This context allows us to see that, at the heart of the poem, li…Read more
  •  53
    How do criticism and aesthetic theory fit together?
    British Journal of Aesthetics 40 (1): 115-132. 2000.
  •  14
    Aesthetics and Music
    British Journal of Aesthetics 49 (3): 313-314. 2009.
  •  15
    This is the first full-length biography of John Langshaw Austin (1911–60). The opening four chapters outline his origins, childhood, schooling, and time as an undergraduate, while the next four examine his early career in professional philosophy, looking at the influence of Oxford Realism, Logical Positivism, Pragmatism, and the later Wittgenstein. The central twelve chapters then explore Austin’s wartime career in British Intelligence. The first three examine the contributions he made to the ca…Read more
  •  141
    Literature, knowledge, and the aesthetic attitude
    Ratio 22 (4): 375-397. 2009.
    An attitude which hopes to derive aesthetic pleasure from an object is often thought to be in tension with an attitude which hopes to derive knowledge from it. The current article argues that this alleged conflict only makes sense when the aesthetic attitude and knowledge are construed unnaturally narrowly, and that when both are correctly understood there is no tension between them. To do this, the article first proposes a broad and satisfying account of the aesthetic attitude, and then conside…Read more
  •  4
    This chapter contains sections titled: Platonic Influences on Shakespeare's Pre‐1604 Work Othello's “Temptation Scene” as a Parody of the Elenchus.
  •  1
    The Rediscovery of the Mind, by John Searle (review)
    Philosophy 68 (265): 415-418. 1992.
  •  9
    Rafe McGregor, The Value of Literature
    Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 54 (1): 127. 2020.
  •  87
    The Problem of Perfect Fakes
    Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 71 151-175. 2012.
    Fakes fall into two categories: copies and pastiches. The first is exemplified when someone paints a reproduction of Manet's The Fifer with the intention of selling it to you as the original. The second is exemplified when someone paints a picture in the style of Manet – although not a reproduction of one of his actual works – with the intention of selling it to you as a picture by Manet
  •  40
    Success through Failure: Wittgenstein and the Romantic Preface
    Aisthesis: Pratiche, Linguaggi E Saperi Dell’Estetico 6 (1): 85-113. 2013.
    I argue that the Preface to Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations represents a form of preface found in several other major works of Romanticism. In essence, this kind of preamble says: ‘I have tried very hard to write a work of the following conventional type … . I failed, and have thus been compelled to publish, with some reluctance, the following fragmentary, eccentric, unfinished or otherwise unsatisfactory work.’ It sometimes transpires, however, that a work which appeared unfinished …Read more
  •  76
    Lamarque and Olsen on literature and truth
    Philosophical Quarterly 47 (188): 322-341. 1997.
    In Fiction, Truth and Literature, Lamarque and Olsen argue that if a critic claims or attempts to prove that the outlook of a work of literature is true or false, he is not engaging in literary or aesthetic appreciation. This paper argues against this position by adducing cases where literary critics discuss the truth or falsity of a work’s view, when their opinions are obviously relevant to the work’s aesthetic assessment. The paper considers in detail the way factual errors damage a work’s aes…Read more
  •  113
    The objectivity of aesthetic judgements
    British Journal of Aesthetics 39 (1): 40-52. 1999.
    The first half of this article argues that, like judgments as to whether something smells or tastes good, judgments about works of art ultimately depend on an element of subjective response. However, it shows that, unlike gustatory or olfactory judgments, we can argue meaningfully about our experience of works of art because they have _parts<D>. Because works of art have parts these can be patterned by the imagination, and this patterning can be influenced by what is said to us. The second half …Read more
  •  328
    Wittgenstein, Plato, and the historical socrates
    Philosophy 82 (1): 45-85. 2007.
    This essay examines the profound affinities between Wittgenstein and the historical Socrates. The first five sections argue that similarities between their personalities and circumstances can explain a comparable pattern of philosophical development. The next nine show that many apparently chance similarities between the two men's lives and receptions can be explained by their shared conceptions ofphilosophical method. The last three sections consider the difficulty of practising this method thr…Read more
  •  22
    Wittgenstein's Romantic Inheritance
    Philosophy 69 (269). 1994.
    A number of writers have noted affinities between the form and style of Wittgenstein′s Philosophical Investigations and the Christian confessional tradition. 1 , 2 In this paper, however, If the Christian tradition, than of the Christian inheritance refracted through, and secularized by, German Romanticism. I shall argue that Wittgenstein′s work is less a direct continuation on this context, not only do many of the features of the Investigations which seem eccentric or wilful become naturalized,…Read more