Concept of the Beautiful

Agnes Heller's voice resounds in this pedagogic journey through the history of philosophical conceptions of the beautiful. Her choice of philosophical theories follows a continental strain, from Plato through Hume, Burke, Kant, and Hegel, to Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Benjamin and Adorno. Her interpretations are original, offering us new insight to her philosophy as a whole and into a world that many claim has no beauty left within it. She engages the pessimistic conclusion deeply but ultimately surpasses it, persuasively and without sentimentality. -- Lydia Goehr, Columbia University Beautifully narrated, abundant in aphoristic formulations and original thoughts, this book is an engaging biography of the concept of the beautiful from its birth in Plato to its flourishing in Kant and Hegel and to its fragmentation in Benjamin and Adorno. As Heller compellingly argues, the experience of the beautiful can, and perhaps should, lead to a transformation and fulfillment of the human being in her quest for a good life. -- Dmitri Nikulin, New School for Social Research