Module description
This module introduces and examines a number of the key thinkers and the central debates within Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art.
The first half of the course looks in detail at four influential, historical analyses of art - by Hume, Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger. Central questions addressed include the nature of beauty, whether all artistic preferences are equally valid, the relationship between art and art theory, and the role of artworks in enshrining, sustaining, or undermining, social institutions.
The second half of the course focuses on contemporary treatments of some of the core questions in aesthetics. The main topics considered include: Can a work of art be immoral? If so, would it be bad art?; Can I make something a work of art simply by saying so?; How do pictures represent, and to what degree is pictorial representation conventional?; Can pornography be art?; What, if anything, is wrong with kitsch? Does a work of art have a single ‘correct’ meaning? If so, what determines it?
Additionally, there will be a special summative question available from Reading Week on contemporary artistic practice.
Assessment details
Summative assessment: 1 x 3,000-word (100%)
Formative assessment: 1 x 2,500-word essay.
Educational aims & objectives
This module introduces and examines a number of the key thinkers and the central debates within Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art.
Learning outcomes
In successfully completing the course, students will demonstrate and refine an advanced ability to assess and criticise arguments, and to identify and analyse the rhetorical and stylistic structure of writing and speech. They will also have demonstrated and developed an ability to conduct individual research, to participate in seminars and seminar presentations, and to work to deadlines.
Specific Learning Outcomes
The capacity to grasp, assess and analyse the philosophical content of some of the most important developments and issues within the philosophy of art.
Teaching pattern
One one-hour weekly lecture and one one-hour weekly seminar over ten weeks.
Suggested reading list
- Lessing, A., ‘What is wrong with a forgery?’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 19 (1965), pp.461-7.
- Hume, 'Of the Standard of Taste' in his Essays: Moral, Political and Literary (Liberty Classics, 1987); reprinted in Neill and Ridley (eds.), The Philosophy of Art (McGraw, 1995); and in many other anthologies.
- Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics, trans. Bosanquet, ed.Inwood (Penguin: 1993), pp.27-61, 75-97 OR Hegel, Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art, trans. T.M. Knox, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), sections 1-8.
- Danto, A., ‘The Artworld’ in Journal of Philosophy Vol.61 1964, pp.571-584. Also reprinted in Neill and Ridley (eds.), The Philosophy of Art (McGraw, 1995), and many other anthologies.
- Kulka, T., ‘Kitsch’, The British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 28 (1988), pp. 18-27.
- Kieran, M., ‘Pornographic Art’ in Philosophy and Literature, Vol. 25, (2001), pp. 31-45.