Develops a aesthetic theory terms as Critical Aesthetic Realism - taking Kantian aesthetics as a starting point and drawing upon contemporary theories of mind from philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science. This book reveals dichotomies such as universality and subjectivity, objectivity and autonomy, and cognitivism and non-cognitivism.

Dichotomies such as universality and subjectivity, objectivity and autonomy, cognitivism and non-cognitivism, and truth and beauty are revealed as complementary features of an aesthetic judgment.

Acknowledgments
Ch.1 Introduction: Formalism and the Problem of Beauty
1. Background
2. Formalism and cognitivism
3. Beauty and desire
4. Beauty and the sublime
5. The way ahead: aims and methodology
Ch.2 Universality and Subjectivity
1. Introduction
2. Aesthetic ideas and creativity
3. Aesthetic ideas and the beauty of nature
4. The functional role of beauty and the systematicity of nature.
5. Conclusion
Ch. 3 Objectivity and Autonomy
1. Introduction: the principles of objectivity
2. The aesthetic characterization
3. Background knowledge
4. Unity and cohesion
5. Artistic intention
6. The aesthetic characterization of nature
7. Conclusion
Ch.4 Critical Aesthetic Realism
1. Introduction
2. Cognitivism
3. Non-cognitivism
4. Aesthetic Naturalism
5. Critical Aesthetic Realism
6. Conclusion
Ch.5 Beauty and Truth
1. Introduction
2. Senses of "realism" in art history.
3. "Realism" according to theories of pictorial realism.
4. Aesthetic realism
5. The grounds of aesthetic truth.
6. Conclusion.
Ch. 6 Natural Generativity and Systematicity.
1. Introduction
2. Background themes: mind and brain
3. The aesthetic and the artistic: motivating the distinction
4. A hierarchy of constraints
5. Aesthetic form, aesthetic ideas and universality
6. The imagination and the perceptual object
7. Consciousness as structure
8. Summary
Ch.7 The Ubiquity of Beauty
1. Introduction
2. Reentrant signalling, phenomenal properties and physicalism
3. The aesthetic characterisation and reentrant signalling
4. Aesthetic ideas and reentrant signalling
5. Aesthetic concepts and supervenience
6. Aesthetic properties, style and the historical artefact
7. Conclusion
Ch.8 Ugliness
1. Introduction: the opposite to beauty
2. The structure of ugliness
3. Aesthetic properties and ugliness
4. Ugliness and displeasure
5. Horror and pleasure
6. Ugliness in art
7. Disinterested displeasure
8. Ugliness as beauty's antithesis
9. The sublime
10. Conclusion
Ch. 9: Conclusion: an ontology of art
1. Introduction
2. Critical aesthetic realism and ontology of art
3. Critical aesthetic realism and artistic intention
4. Critical aesthetic realism and theories of art
5. Critical aesthetic realism and normativity
6. The critical aesthetic realist manifesto
7. Conclusion
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index