In Other Shoes Music, Metaphor, Empathy, Existence

In fifteen essays-one new, two newly revised and expanded, three with new postscripts-Kendall L. Walton wrestles with philosophical issues concerning music, metaphor, empathy, existence, fiction, and expressiveness in the arts. These subjects are intertwined in striking and surprising ways. By exploring connections among them, appealing sometimes to notions of imagining oneself in shoes different from one's own, Walton creates a wide-ranging mosaic of innovative insights.

After considering a career in music, Kendall Walton found his natural home in philosophy, earning a B.A. at Berkeley and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He taught for many years at the University of Michigan, and more recently at Stanford University. His writings include the ground breaking Mimesis as Make-believe (1990), and a companion volume to the present one, Marvelous Images: On Values and the Arts (2008). Walton is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a past president of the American Society for Aesthetics.