[SydPhil] 2026 Anderson Lectures | Art and Aesthetic Appreciation by Description | Oct 6, 2026

Tue Sep 15 15:54:43 AEST 2026

Hi everyone,

I’m delighted to invite you to the Anderson Lecture in Philosophy, to be held at Gleebooks in Glebe on Tuesday, 6 October. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. for a 6 p.m. start.

We’re very fortunate to have Catharine Abell from the University of Oxford delivering this year’s lecture, titled “Art and Aesthetic Appreciation by Description.”

All are welcome, and registration is free. I hope you can make it.

All the best,

Alex

Alexandre Lefebvre <https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/about/our-people/academic-staff/alex-lefebvre.html> | Professor of Politics and Philosophy
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences | The University of Sydney
S248 Quadrangle (A14) | 0491 672 222 | alexlefebvre.com<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/rXnMCWLVXkUxPGmgWI6fkkioC3JE?domain=alexlefebvre.com>
Chair, Discipline of Philosophy
New book: Liberalism as a Way of Life<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/sQq8CXLW2mUGq0oyzuVhLLiWPkC6?domain=press.princeton.edu> (Princeton, 2024)

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
School of Humanities

Discipline of Philosophy
[The University of Sydney]
[Duchamp's fountain]
2026 Anderson Lectures in Philosophy

Art and Aesthetic Appreciation by Description

Catharine Abell | University of Oxford
Gleebooks | Tuesday, 6 October | 5:45pm doors for 6:00pm start
The appreciation of many artworks requires us to perceptually experience them or recordings, copies or reproductions of them. This is consistent with the view that aesthetic appreciation is essentially perceptual. However, there are some artworks we do not need to perceive to appreciate. Descriptions of the non-aesthetic properties of some avant-garde and contemporary artworks can put those with the requisite background knowledge in a position to appreciate them. Either our appreciation of such artworks is not aesthetic, or such artworks show that aesthetic appreciation is not essentially perceptual. I will argue for the latter view and will explore its implications for the nature of aesthetic appreciation.

Please join us after the lecture for some refreshments.

[Catharine Abell]
About the speaker
Catharine Abell is Professor of Philosophy of Art at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford. She is the author of Fiction: A Philosophical Analysis (2020, Oxford University Press). She has published articles on a wide range of topics in the philosophy of art, including the nature of art, pictorial representation, genre, photography and film.

ABOUT THE ANDERSON FELLOWSHIPS:
Anderson Fellowships are bestowed through a bequest of the estate of John Anderson (1893-1962), an influential Australian philosopher and Challis Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney from 1927 to 1958. They fund travel to the University of Sydney for up to two distinguished fellows in philosophy each year with the aim of promoting collaboration between members of the philosophy department and leading researchers around the world.

Image: Wikiart.

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Gleebooks
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