ABSTRACT
Philosophical aesthetics explores various issues relating to art and other aesthetic phenomena; for example, what is art, how does art work, and what is art good for? When aesthetics focuses on comics it is the philosophy of comics, and this is an emerging sub-area within philosophical aesthetics. Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics has, until now, been treated by aestheticians primarily as a source of claims about comics with which they might argue. The analysis employs Understanding Comics as a test case for exploring the ways in which comics, as art, can also function philosophically. The essay demonstrates that a philosophical approach to the study of comics can be of significant value and can highlight issues that might otherwise be neglected.
