Written in untechnical style, this text is for students of music, art history, and literature as well as of philosophy. It looks at all the arts, such as film, music, fiction, poetry and architecture. The text examines what the special value of art is, rather than what art is. It discusses the philosophical theories of Hume, Mill, Kant, Habermas and Collingwood; the objections of Althusser, Lukacs, Levi-Strauss, Derrida; and concludes with Hegel and Schopenhauer.