Traditional aesthetics is often associated with the appreciation of art, Allen Carlson shows how much of aesthetic experience does not encompass art but nature, in one's response to sunsets, mountains or horizons or more mundane surroundings, like gardens or the view from a window.

Traditional aesthetics is often associated with the appreciation of art. Allen Carlson shows how much of aesthetic experience does not encompass art but nature, in one's response to sunsets, mountains or horizons or more mundane surroundings, like gardens or the view from a window. He argues that knowledge of what it is that people are appreciating is essential to having an appropriate aesthetic experience and that scientific understanding of nature can enhance the appreciation of it, rather than denigrate it.

List of illustrations Preface Acknowledgements
Introduction: aesthetics and the environment
Part I The appreciation of nature
I The aesthetics of nature, A brief historical overview
A brief overview of contemporary positions
The natural environmental model: some further ramifications
Notes
2 Understanding and aesthetic experience
Aesthetic experience on the Mississippi
Formalism and aesthetic experience
Disinterestedness and aesthetic experience
Conclusion
Notes
3 Formal qualities in the natural environment
Formal qualities and formalism
Formal qualities in current work in environmental aesthetics Background on the significance assigned to formal qualities
Formal qualities in the natural environment
Conclusion
Notes
4 Appreciation and the natural environment
The appreciation of art
Some artistic models for the appreciation of nature
An environmental model for the appreciation of nature
Conclusion
Notes
5 Nature, aesthetic judgment, and objectivity
Nature and objectivity
Walton's position
Nature and culture
Nature and Walton's psychological claim
The correct categories of nature
Conclusion
Notes
6 Nature and positive aesthetics
The development of positive aesthetics
Nature appreciation as non-aesthetic
Positive aesthetics and sublimity
Positive aesthetics and theism
Science and aesthetic appreciation of nature
Science and appropriate aesthetic appreciation of nature
Science and positive aesthetics
Notes
7 Appreciating art and appreciating nature
The concept of appreciation
Appreciating Art: design and appreciation
Appreciating Art: order appreciation
Appreciation nature: design appreciation
Appreciating nature: order appreciation
Conclusion
Notes
Part II
Landscapes, art and architecture
8 Between nature and art
The question of aesthetic relevance
Objects of appreciation and aesthetic necessity
Between nature and art: Appreciating other things
Notes
9 Environmental aesthetics and the dilemma of aesthetic education
The eyesaw argument
The dilemma of aesthetic education
The natural
The aesthetically pleasing
Life values and the eyesore argument
Conclusion
Notes
10 is environmental art an aesthetic affront to nature? Environmental works of art
Environmental art as an aesthetic affront
Some replies to the affront charge
Some concluding examples
Notes
11 The aesthetic appreciation of Japanese gardens
The dialectical nature of Japanese gardens
The new agricultural landscapes
Difficult aesthetic appreciation and novelty
12 Appreciating the new agricultural landscapes
Traditional agricultural landscapes
The new agricultural landscapes
Difficult aesthetic appreciation and novelty
Appreciating the new agricultural landscapes
Conclusion
Notes
13 Existence, location, and function: the appreciation of architecture
Architecture and art
To be or not to be: Hamlet and Tolstoy
Here I stand
to fit or not to fit
Form follows function and fit follows function, Function, location, existence: the path of appreciation
Notes
14 Landscape and literature
Hillerman's landscapes and aesthetic relevance
Classic formalism and postmodern landscape appreciation
Formal descriptions and ordinary descriptions
Other factual landscape descriptions
The analogy with art argument
Nominal descriptions
Imaginative descriptions and cultural embeddedness
Mythological landscape descriptions
Literary landscape descriptions
The analogy with art argument again
Conclusion
Notes
Index.