A Pragmatic Theory of Public Art and Architecture

A Pragmatic Theory of Public Art and Architecture uses a pragmatic method to determine what public art consists of, the differences between good, bad, and non-art, and whether such art should be subsidized by government. A major part of the book concerns the philosophies of architecture held by such persons as Thomas Jefferson, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Albert Speer. It also provides a discussion of the material, formal, efficient, and final causes of art as suggested by Aristotle and later interpreted by John Dewey, William James, and other pragmatists. A final inquiry concerns the relation of art to morality.