Abstract

People do not appreciate unfamiliar art as deeply as those who have known it all their lives; empirical studies confirm that few features in any art category have universal appeal. From the eighteenth century onward, relatively few European philosophers built this diversity into the foundations of their aesthetic theories, and their critics argue that this deficiency stems from colonialist and other discriminatory ideologies. Recent analytic philosophers of art inherit some of this indifference to diversity, though some have fashioned tools that could assist in understanding the phenomenon. This introduction surveys highlights of this history.