Paul Crowther is a professor of philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and author specialising in the fields of the philosophy of art and aesthetics

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

, metaphysics

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...

, and visual culture

Visual culture

Visual Culture as an academic subject is a field of study that generally includes some combination of cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy, and anthropology, by focusing on aspects of culture that rely on visual images.- Overview :...

. He has written nine books in the field of History of Art and Philosophy. He was raised in the Belle Isle estate, Hunslet, and Middleton areas of south Leeds and began taking an interest in art and philosophy at the age of 16.

Career

Crowther initially enrolled at the University of Manchester

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

 to study history and politics. He subsequently migrated to the University of Leeds

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

 where he took a joint honours degree in Philosophy and the History of Art. He was a graduate student at the University of York

University of York

The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...

 and also holds a teaching certificate in Classical Studies. He obtained his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

. Crowther is a former fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom...

 where he was a lecturer at the Department of the History of Art and Reader in the History Faculty. He has also taught at the University of St Andrew's (Fife, Scotland), the University of Central Lancashire

University of Central Lancashire

The University of Central Lancashire is a university based in Preston, Lancashire, England.The university has its roots in The Institution For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge which was founded in 1828. In 1992 it was granted University status by the Privy Council...

, and Jacobs University Bremen. At present, Crowther holds the post of Chair of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway

National University of Ireland, Galway

The National University of Ireland, Galway is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland...

.

Academic work

Crowther's interests and expertise are in the fields of visual aesthetics, phenomenology, and Kant

KANT

KANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...

. Works by him on the philosophy of visual art have been translated into Chinese, Korean, German, and Serbian, amongst other languages.

Selected Bibliography

Crowther, Paul (2009). Phenomenology of the Visual Arts (even the frame). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Crowther, Paul (2007). Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Crowther, Paul (1997). The Language of Twentieth-Century Art: A Conceptual History. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Crowther, Paul (1993). Art and Embodiment: From Aesthetics to Self-Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Crowther, Paul (1989). The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.