PHL 230 AESTHETICS Syllabi Instructor: • Introduction to Philosophy Dr. Bob Zunjic • Critical Thinking • Logic • Ancient Philosophy • Ethics Phone: (401) 874-5499 • Idea of Office Hours: E-mail: [email protected] Modernity By appointment • Modern Philosophy • Aesthetics • Existentialism • The Balkans: Past and Course Description: Present I envision this course as an introduction to general Aesthetics. Outlines Aesthetics, or the philosophy of art, is a theoretical endeavor to explicate the essence of art by defining its nature, its specific function, • Value of and the grounds for its recognition and appreciation. The course Philosophy outlines strategies purporting to answer the most basic questions about • Euthyphro the status, origin and purpose of art as articulated by classic and modern • Republic thinkers. In an effort to understand and explain artistic creativity in its • Metaphysics various forms we shall particularly focus on the following problems: A1-2 "What makes an artwork an artwork?", "Is it an accurate representation • Physics A, B of reality or something else?", "Must art be representational at all?", • Nicomachean "What is artistic value?", "What are aesthetic qualities?", "What is Ethics beauty?", "Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?", "Does it lie in • Sermon on objective proportions and forms or is it purely physiological and the Mount cultural?", "Are aesthetic judgments merely subjective statements?", • Dedicatory "What is taste?", "Is there any inter-subjective standard of taste or is it Letter entirely relative?", "Are judgments of taste inextricably bound to • Meditation I subjective feelings or are they rather intellectual?", Last but not least, • Meditation II "Is art coming to its definitive end or is it just caught in a process of • Meditations never ending transformations?" III-VI • Leviathan All these questions center around the most fundamental issue: "Can art • Standard of be defined and delineated from non-art?" Our course explicitly or Taste implicitly revolves around this central issue. Instead of reaching one • Prolegomena final point it questions the very distinction by highlighting its to Any Future presuppositions. If art perpetually recreates itself it is futile to set solid Metaphysics boundaries to its forms even if this would impede our effort to • Preamble definitely answer the above questions. This may be a disappointing • Groundwork outcome to those who seek formulas and clear-cut answers but it does of the more justice to the complexity of art manifestations. The questions Metaphysic of regarding art are extremely difficult to answer given the immense Morals variety of art forms, non-formulaic character of artistic works, and the • Critique of ever changing historical and social settings of artistic productivity. Judgment Rather than trying to provide definitive answers to all the puzzles of art • Analytic of the we shall thoroughly examine some representative art theories that Sublime should unravel both the complexity and the importance of aesthetic • Utilitarianism issues. The selected theories range from the Representation (mimetic) • Fear and and Expression theory over Formalist and Cognitive approaches up to Trembling the World-disclosing and Ideational elucidations of artworks. • Concluding Unscientific The course study includes the following five areas: Postscript • The Brothers 1. Forms of Creativity: Art, Craft, Popular Art, Commercial Art, Karamazov Avant-garde. • Twilight of the 2. Art and Society (Morality, Religion, Politics). Idols 3. Art as Representation (mimesis). • Beyond Good 4. Mental Taste and Judgment. and Evil 5. Beautiful Form and Disinterested Liking. • Being And 6. Art as Expression and Experience. Nothingness 7. Aesthetic Appreciation and Criticism. • Existentialism 8. Discourse about Art and the Underlying Dichotomies. Is a Humanism Course Text: • Existentialism Is a Stephen David Ross, Art and Its Humanism2 Significance, An Anthology of Aesthetic Theory, State University of New York Press, Albany 1994, 3rd edition. Homepage The course is based on this single reader. All readings will be taken from this book. Our sample of readings, with necessary adjustments, draws from the respective sections of this anthology. We cannot cover all the included topics in class nor do we intend to. The participants in the course are expected to use the book as a wider resource for different aesthetic approaches, important artistic programs and ongoing philosophical debates on major aesthetic issues. Top of the Page Format: The course combines lectures, interpretive exercises in the assigned texts, classroom discussions and small research work. It will also include two papers and one viewing or listening assignment. No matter what the form of a particular class may be, basically we will do one and the same thing: close interpretation of the texts and careful analysis of their arguments. Objectives: The goals of this course may be stated as follows: To demonstrate the centrality of aesthetic experience in human life, to appreciate its different forms and functions, to get acquainted with the most fundamental aesthetic concepts and ideas, to recognize the need and the complexity of aesthetic reasoning, to learn how to understand major theoretical articulations of aesthetic experience and finally, to relate and apply theoretical elaborations of aesthetic experience to everyday life and personal evaluation of art. Requirements: (a) Students are expected to do all weekly assigned readings on time and as thorough as they can. We shall read and comment upon many critical passages in class, but always as a continuation of your individual reading, not as a substitute! Therefore, prepare for classes and always bring your book! Our focus will be on the complexity of formulations that require an appropriate analytical approach and increased sensitivity for divergent interpretations. (b) Students are expected to write two papers based on the course texts (either philosophical treatises or artistic manifests). The papers should be strictly based on the course texts, but the method and approach are a matter of choice. The papers are due for the Midterm and Final exam respectively. The suggested scope is 2 to 5 pages. In addition, you are expected to do one home assignment that would require a short report on your own artistic experience or any other exposure to art in a gallery, theatre, concert hall, or everyday setting. The purpose of these assignments is to enable the participants to test some theoretical hypotheses or to provide additional evidence for certain aesthetic positions. Attendance: Regular attendance and doing reading on time are indispensable for being successful in this course (they will be reflected in the participation grade accordingly). What counts most, however, is not mere physical presence, but a productive participation in answering questions, in doing presentations and taking part in class discussions. Ultimately what matters is what you say and how you say it, not the sheer fact that you are talking. And remember: class discussion is not a battlefield wherein everyone fights everyone in order to establish personal superiority. Our objective is not to defeat others but to collaboratively find the right interpretation, the correct argument and possibly the true explanation of the problem. Therefore, everybody's contribution should be phrased in accordance with that objective. Exams: There will be two exams including one final. They will consist of multiple choice and short essay questions. Grading: First Exam: 30% Second Exam: 30% Papers: 15% Assignment: 5% Attendance and Class 20% Participation: Regular attendance, doing readings on time and taking part in class discussions are included in the participation grade. Permission to be excused from a scheduled exam will be granted only for serious medical or personal reasons and must be properly documented. Disabilities: Any student with a documented disability is welcome to contact me early in the semester so that we may work out reasonable accommodations to support your success in this course. One should also contact Disability Services for Students. Exams: Introductory: What is Aesthetics Week 1 Arthur Danto, The Artworld Week 2 Plato, Republic II,III, X Week 3, 4 Plato, Ion Week 5 Plato, Symposion Week 5 Aristotle, Poetics Week 6 Mid - Term David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste Week 7 Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Judgment Week 8, 9, 10 Leo Tolstoy, What is Art? Week 11 Michel Foucault, The Order of Things Week 11 Jacques Derrida, The Truth in Painting Week 12 Finals .