Post:	Emeritus Reader
Location:	Arts B B259
Email:	T.J.Diffey@sussex.ac.uk
Telephone numbers
Internal:	7378
UK:	(01273) 877378
International:	+44 1273 877378

Biography

I studied Philosophy and English Literature for my BA degree at the University of Bristol, and graduated in 1960. I was awarded my Ph.D by the same university in 1966 for a thesis on Aesthetic Judgements and Works of Art. I was appointed Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy at Sussex in 1962, Assistant Lecturer in 1963, Lecturer in 1965 and Reader in 1978. I teach on the Sussex MA programme in Aesthetics. My undergraduate teaching is in Aesthetics and Ethics. I also offer courses in the School of Cultural and Community Studies in Utopias and Dystopias and in Art and Society.

I was Editor of The British Journal of Aesthetics, which is published quarterly for the British Society of Aesthetics by Oxford University Press. I edited the issues from Spring 1978 (Vol. 18, no. 2) to July 1995 (Vol. 35, no. 3) inclusive. 

I have served as a Member of the Editorial Boards of various journals which currently include: the British Journal of Aesthetics; the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism; the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics; Philosophical Inquiry; International Quarterly and Collingwood Studies: the Journal of the Collingwood Society.

I retired from the University in September 2003.

Research

Aesthetics, in particular issues at the intersection of aesthetics and ethics.
The philosophy of R.G. Collingwood.
Philosophy and literature, in particular, in what sense certain literary works can be said to be philosophical.
In literature I have a particular interest in and have published on the works of Wordsworth, Thomas Hardy and John Cowper Powys.
Environmental aesthetics and the aesthetics of nature.

I have had a longstanding interest in what is now coming to be called environmental aesthetics and my work is increasingly focused on this. I am currently working on a book on "Art and Nature", which extends the ideas first published in my "Natural Beauty without Metaphysics" published in Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts, edited by Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell (Cambridge University Press, 1993). Portions of this work are beginning to appear in the journals in advance of what I hope will be the publication of the entire book.

Publications

Books

Tolstoy's "What Is Art?" (Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm, 1985), pp. 165.

The Republic of Art and Other Essays, New Studies in Aesthetics Series, 6 (New York: Peter Lang, 1991), pp. 345. This is a collection of my articles, mainly previously published, as indicated below:

(1) "Essentialism and the Definition of 'Art'", originally published in the British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 13, no. 2 (Spring 1973), 103-120

(2) "The Republic of Art", British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 9, no. 2 (April 1969), 145-156

(3) "On Defining Art", British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 19, no. 1 (Winter 1979), 15-23

(4) "The Institutional Theory of Art", Philosophical Inquiry: International Quarterly, vol. VI, No 3 - 4, (Summer-Fall 1984), 153-159

(5) "The Idea of Art", British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 17, no. 2 (Spring 1977), 122-128

(6) "A Place for Works of Art", Ratio, vol. XIX, no. 1 (June 1977), 13-23

(7) "Art and Meaning" in Richard Woodfield, ed., XIth International Congress of Aesthetics, 1988 (A selection of the papers given at the Congress, chosen by the organizer and editor of this volume.) (Nottingham Polytechnic, 1990) pp. 38-41.

(8) "Morality and Literary Criticism", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism , vol. XXXIII, 4 (Summer 1975), 443-454

(9) "The Perception of Literature", published here for the first time 

(10) "Art and Goodness: Collingwood's Aesthetics and Moore's Ethics Compared", Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, vol V, nos. 1-2 (1982), 25-39; and reprinted in British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 25, no. 2 (Spring 1985), 185-198. 

(11) "Aesthetic Instrumentalism", British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 22, no. 4 (Autumn 1982), 337-349

(12) "Evaluation and Aesthetic Appraisals", British Journal of Aesthetics, vol.7, no. 4 (October 1967), 358-373

(13) "The Evaluation of a Work of Art: The Problem of Minimalism", Dialectics and Humanism: The Polish Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. XV, No. 1-2, 1988. Special Issue: "Art and Philosophy: Mutual Connections and Inspirations". Guest editor, Harold Osborne.

(14) "Aesthetics and Aesthetic Education (and Maybe Morals Too)", Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Winter 1986), 42-47

(15) "The Idea of Aesthetic Experience", first published in M.H. Mitias, ed., Possibility of the Aesthetic Experience (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 3 November 1986)

(16) "Schopenhauer's Account of Aesthetic Experience", British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 30, No. 2 (April 1990), pp. 132-142. 

(17) "Collingwood's Principles of Art : Aesthetics and Philosophical Method" published here for the first time and republished in Philosophy, History and Civilization: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on R. G. Collingwood eds. David Boucher, James Connelly and Tariq Modood. (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1995)

(18) "Natural Beauty without Metaphysics", in Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts, edited by Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell, Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and the Arts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1993). 

Contributions to Books

(1) "The roots of imagination: the philosophical context", being Chapter 4 of The Romantics: The Context of English Literature (London: Methuen, 1981), edited by Stephen Prickett, pp. 164-201.

(2) "The Idea of Aesthetic Experience", in M.H. Mitias, ed., Possibility of the Aesthetic Experience (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1986), reprinted in my Republic of Art and Other Essays and also in Theories of Art and Beauty, edited by Robert Wilkinson (Open University Press, 1991) Reading 23, pp. 312-322. Reader for Open University Course AA301, Philosophy of the Arts.

(3) "The Evaluation of Works of Art" in Hubert Dethier and Eldert Willems (eds.), Cultural Hermeneutics of Modern Art: Essays in Honor of Jan Aler (Rodopi, Amsterdam, 1989) Lier en Boog Studies, Vol. 4, pp. 135-149. (Reprinted in my Republic of Art and Other Essays)

(4) "Art and Meaning" in Richard Woodfield, ed., XIth International Congress of Aesthetics, 1988 (Nottingham Polytechnic, 1990) pp. 38-41. Also published in Artstrip Vol 8, No 1 (December 1988), University of Exeter Centre for Arts Research and Development, ed. Malcolm Ross and reprinted in my Republic of Art and Other Essays.

(5) "Not in the Light of Truth: Philosophy and Poetry in Wolf Solent" in Belinda Humfrey, ed., John Cowper Powys's Wolf Solent: Critical Studies (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1990), pp. 69-85. 

(6) "British Aesthetics since 1960" in Grazia Marchiano (ed), Le Grandi Correnti dell'Estetica Novecentesca: Scuole tendenze problemi analizzati da specialisti di 14 passi europei e extraeuropei [The Major Trends in Twentieth Century Aesthetics, Proceedings of International Conference, University of Siena, May 1990] (Guerini & Associati, Milan, 1991), pp. 265-287. Translated into Chinese and published in Study of Aesthetics and Theory of Arts (Beijing, China) (Vol. 3, No. 2, 1994), pp. 259--279.

(7) "Natural Beauty without Metaphysics" in Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell (eds.), Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts. Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and the Arts. Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 43--64 and also published in my Republic of Art and Other Essays.

(8) "A Work of Art and Its Effects", in Jolanta Brach-Czaina (ed.), Primum Philosophari: Ksiega pamiatkowa Stefanowi Morawskiemu ofiarowana (Essays dedicated to Professor Stefan Morawski), Oficyna Naukowa, Warsaw, 1993, pp. 40--52.

(9) "Metaphysics and Aesthetics: A Case Study of Schopenhauer and Thomas Hardy"" in Schopenhauer, Philosophy, and the Arts, ed., Dale Jacquette, Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and the Arts. Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 229--248. 

(10) "Sady Estetyczne o Literaturze" ["The Aesthetic Judgement of Literature"] in Aksjologiczne Spektrum Sztuki I edited by Piotr Kawiecki and Józef Tarnowski (Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdanksiego, Gdansk, 1995), pp. 49--91. [Original place of publication of this paper. The Polish translation is the only published version of this paper.] 

(11) "Aesthetics and Philosophical Method" in Philosophy, History and Civilization: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on R. G. Collingwood eds. David Boucher, James Connelly and Tariq Modood. (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1995), pp.62--78 and also published in my Republic of Art and Other Essays.

(12) "What Can We Learn from Art?" in Art and Its Messages: Meaning, Morality, and Society, ed., Stephen Davies. (Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), pp. 26--33. Originally published in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 73, No.2 (June 1995) Symposium on Aesthetics.

(13) "Essentialism" in Encyclopedia of Aesthetics ed. Michael Kelly (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), Vol 2, pp. 122-125)

(14) "Wordsworth, William" in Encyclopedia of Aesthetics ed. Michael Kelly (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), Vol 4, pp. 478-482)

(15) "Architecture, Art and Works of Art" in Architecture and Civilization Vol 74, Elementa ed. Michael H. Mitias (Amsterdam and Atlanta, Georgia: Rodopi, 1999), pp. 1-23.

(16) "Art or Nature?" in Aesthetic Concepts: Essays after Sibley edited by Emily Brady and Jerrold Levinson (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2001), Chapter 10, pp. 162-179.

(17) "Experiencing Nature and Experiencing Art" in Art and Experience: Studies in Art, Culture, and Communities edited by Ananta Ch. Sukla (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2003), Chapter 3, pp. 42-56.

(18) "Wittgenstein, Anti-essentialism and the Definition of Art" in Wittgenstein, Aesthetics and Philosophy edited by Peter B Lewis (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), Chapter 2, pp. 37-51.

Articles (other than those already listed above)

(1) "John Cowper Powys and Philosophy", The Powys Review, no. 2 (Winter 1977), 27-39. Translated by Benjamin Stassen as "John Cowper Powys et philosophie" and published in Plein Chant, 42-43 (Autumn 1988): Special Issue on John Cowper Powys edited by Benjamin Stassen. 

(2) "John Cowper Powys and Thomas Hardy", The Powys Review, no. 12, vol. III, no. iv (Spring 1983), 26-38.

(3) "Henchard and Falstaff: A Note Comparing their Deaths", The Thomas Hardy Society Review, vol. 1, no. 9 (1983), 282-284

(4) "John Cowper Powys: Some Thoughts concerning his Imagination", The Powys Review, no. 14, vol. IV, no. ii (1984), 29-44

(5) "A Visit to Mrs Lily Brooks [John Cowper Powys's housemaid], 5 June 1985", The Powys Review, No. 18, Vol. Vii, (1986), 62-65

(6) "On Steering Clear of Creativity: Notes for a Lecture", in Janet S. Hauton, ed., Report of the 1984 Aesthetic Education Conference, 7-l0 September 1984, Lincoln, 1986, pp. 1-24. Revised version published in Polish translation: "O Problemie Kreatywnosci" ["Problem of Creativity"], Sztuka i Filozofia (Art and Philosophy), No. 1 (1989). 

(7) "Harold Osborne (1905-1987)", British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 301-306

(8) "Collingwood's Aesthetics", paper given to University of Exeter 9th Creative Arts Summer School, Dillington College for Adult Education, Ilminster, Somerset, July 1987, published in Artstrip Vol 7, No 1 (December 1987), University of Exeter Centre for Arts Research and Development, ed. Malcolm Ross

(9) "A Matter of Taste", CIEFL Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 1989, pp. 110-119. Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, India.

(10) "In Memoriam John L. Fisher", British Journal of Aesthetics (Vol. 30, No 3, July 1990), pp. 277-278 

(11) "Eva Schaper (1924--1992)", British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 33, No. 1 (January 1993), pp. 1-4.

(12) "On American and British Aesthetics", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Spring, 1993), pp. 169-175. 

(13) "Art and the Transcendent", British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 34, No. 4 (October 1994), pp. 326--336.

(14) "A Note on Some Meanings of the Term "Aesthetic"", British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 35, No. 1 (January 1995), pp. 61--66. 

(15) "On Aesthetic Judgement", Annals for Aesthetics Vol. 34 (1995), Athens, Greece. Proceedings of the Symposium on Aesthetics in education, culture and tradition, Athens, 11-12 November 1994, pp. 73--86.

(16) "The Question of Internationalism in Philosophy and Aesthetics", Metaphilosophy, Vol. 28, No. 4 (October 1997). pp. 314--328. Special Issue: Internationalism in Philosophy, guest editor, Richard Shusterman.

(17) "The Concept of Landscape", Annals for Aesthetics Vol. 36 (1996), Athens, Greece. Proceedings of the Symposium on Aesthetics in education, culture and tradition, Oxford, 29 August-1 September 1996, organised by the British Society of Aesthetics and the Hellenic Society for Aesthetics, pp. 29--42. Also published in the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics Vol XIX, Nos 1 - 2 (1996). Special Volume on Environmental Aesthetics, pp. 11--20. 

(18) "Some Thoughts on the Relationship between Gadamer and Collingwood", Philosophical Inquiry: International Quarterly, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Vol. XX, No 3-4 (Summer-Fall, 1998 on cover, Winter-Spring, 1998 on article), pp. 1--12.

(19) "Arguing About the Environment" British Journal of Aesthetics Special Issue 1960-2000, Aesthetics in Britain, Vol. 40, No 1 (January 2000), pp. 133-148.

(20) "On Steering Clear of Creativity" in the Journal of Visual Art Practice Vol. 3, No. 2 (2004) pp. 91-102.

Review-Articles

(1) J. Smith, The Arts Betrayed, review-article in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Autumn 1979), 366-68.

(2) P. Hernadi, ed., What is Literature?, review-article in Philosophy and Literature (Spring 1980), 121-130.

(3) Janet Wolff, Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art, review-article in British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 24, no. 2 (Spring 1984), 181-171.

Book Reviews

(1) Adrian Stokes, The Invitation in Art, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 5, No. 3 (July 1965), 304-307.

(2) Teddy Brunius, G.E. Moore's Analyses of Beauty, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 5, No. 4 (October 1965), 404-405.

(3) Jerome Ashmore, Santayana, Art and Aesthetics, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 7, No. 2 (April 1967), 201-202.

(4) Anderson and O'Shea (eds.), Studies in Criticism and Aesthetics 1660--1800, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 8, No. 2 (April 1968) 192-193

(5) Lee Jacobus, Aesthetics and the Arts, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 8, No. 4 (October 1968), 413-414

(6) Makoto Ueda, Literary and Art Theories in Japan, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 9, No. 1 (January 1969), 82-84

(7) M. Beardsley, Literature and Aesthetics, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 10, No. 1 (January 1970), 95-96

(8) R. Wollheim, Art and Its Objects, reviewed in Ratio (December 1970), 182-189

(9) K. Pandey, Western Aesthetics, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer 1973), 298-299

(10) M. Podro, The Manifold in Perception, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Autumn 1973), 408-411

(11) W. Bywater, Clive Bell's Eye, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 16, No 3 (Summer 1976), 280-282

(12) R. Scruton, Art and Imagination, reviewed in Mind (January 1977) 151-154

(13) A. Kolnai, Selected Papers, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 18, No 3 (Summer 1978), 284-285

(14) H. Osborne, Abstraction and Artifice in Twentieth-Century Art reviewed in Philosophical Inquiry, International Quarterly, Vol. II, No. 1 (Winter 1980), 430-432

(15) E. Schaper, Studies in Kant's Aesthetics, reviewed in Philosophical Quarterly (Autumn 1980), 356-357

(16) W. Tatarkiewicz, A History of Six Ideas: An Essay in Aesthetics reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 21, no. 3 (Summer 1981), 271-272

(17) John Cowper Powys, After My Fashion, reviewed in The Powys Review 8, (1980/81), 17-21

(18) J.A. Walter, The Human Home: The myth of the sacred environment, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 23, no. 3 (Summer 1983) 272-273

(19) Howard S. Becker, Art Worlds, reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 23, no. 4 (Autumn 1983), 367-368

(20) John Fisher, ed., Essays on Aesthetics: Perspectives on the Work of Monroe C. Beardsley, reviewed in Canadian Philosophical Reviews, Vol. IV, No, 3 (June 1984), 109-111

(21) Eva Schaper, ed., Pleasure, Preference and Value, reviewed in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism , XLIII, No. 1 (Fall 1984), 96-98.

(22) H.W. Fawkner, The Ecstatic World of John Cowper Powys reviewed in The Powys Review, No. 20, Vol. V iv, (1987), pp. 7l-74.

(23) J.B. Bullen, The Expressive Eye: Fiction and Perception in the Work of Thomas Hardy reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Autumn 1987), pp. 380-382.

(24) Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Summer 1988), pp. 291-293.

(25) Paul Mattick Jr (ed), Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics and the Reconstruction of Art reviewed in International Journal of Heritage Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Summer 1995), pp. 181-182. 

(26) R.G. Collingwood, Outlines of a Philosophy of Art reviewed in Collingwood Studies Volume 2 (1995), Perspectives. Edited by David Boucher and Bruce Haddock. Published by the R.G. Collingwood Society. pp. 234--242. 

(27) Andrew Harrison, Philosophy and the Arts: Seeing and Believing reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 38, No. 4 (October 1998), pp. 433-436.

(28) Francis Sparshott, The Future of Aesthetics reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 40, No. 2 (April 2000), pp. 276-278.

(29) Carolyn Korsmeyer, Making Sense of Taste: Food and Philosophy reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 41, No. 3 (July 2001), pp. 341-343.

(30) H.O. Mounce, Tolstoy on Aesthetics: What is Art? reviewed in British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 43, No. 3 (July 2003), pp. 324-26.