Phil 630: Aesthetics

 

 

T 06:00PM-09:00PM BLTN 213

 

 

Dr. Gregory Fernando Pappas

Office- Bltn 209d

Office Hours-: TR 12:30-1:30 by appt.

e-mail-

 

Course Description:

 

After getting acquainted with some of the modern views on Aesthetics (e.g. Hume and Kant) we will carefully examine some of the most predominant approaches to Aesthetics in the 20th century (analytic, continental, and pragmatist approaches).

 

The seminar will, however,  focus on two topics (1) aesthetic judgment  (as a judgment of value) and (2) aesthetic experience in 20th century philosophy. 

 

Among the issues to be discussed are:

*What are aesthetic value-judgments?  How different are these judgments from moral judgments?  Can there be reasonable criticism or evaluation about judgments of value? Are they “objective” or “subjective”?

 

*Is there such a thing as aesthetic experience? How does it differ from other kinds of experience? Is it confined to works of art?  What is art? What is its significance for philosophy and in life? 

 

Since the emphasis in this course is on aesthetic experience, it is hoped that you will bring your own aesthetic experiences (and of others)  to bear upon the more theoretical claims. This is the sort of philosophical criticism that goes beyond conceptual analysis and logical evaluation.

 

 

Evaluation:

 

25 %    4 one page essays due at the end of the semester but from your Critical Reactions (CR’s)          that you will post throughout the semester:

 

CR’s are short essays (try to keep them no longer than 1 page) by means of a list group on the Internet. 

 

Please subscribe ASAP by just sending an e-mail to PhilAesthetics-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

 To Post message:         PhilAesthetics@yahoogroups.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PhilAesthetics/

 

There are two types of CR’s:

 

(a) A short essay raising a question or critical comment about a particular text assigned in class.

 

For example:  “The author argues  in page 5 that ‘.....’. This strikes me as false, dubious, vague, silly, nonsense (or  interesting,  true,  a good point, etc..) because .........”   If you do not understand the text explain what is it that you do not understand and why.  

 

(b) A short essay raising a question or critical comment about a  post from another student.

 

For example, “What Bob wrote in his critical reaction to x text makes sense, however, one must also consider this other possible objection…..” or “I agree with Maria when he says x but the point can be further supported if we consider y as evidence”.  Sometimes you can help other students by just presenting some questions or help reformulate their point better (using different terms).

 

You will automatically receive the e-mails (CR’S)  of everyone in the class. I am hoping the CR’S will provoke cyberspace discussion which will in turn serve to enhance the in-class discussion. This is also an opportunity for those of you that may not get a chance to participate in the classroom discussion.

 

Here are some important rules:

 

(1) Each student is required to send out one  (a) type CR each week and one  (b) type CR  every two weeks.  These messages will not be graded but everytime you fail to post (or are late) I will take points from your final participation grade for the course .   

 

(2)  At the end of the semester,  each student will pick what they thought were their four  best  CR’s,  revise them in light of any suggestions that came up in responses, and hand them in as a set of one-page papers.  I am hoping this system would encourage reading, thinking, posting on a regular basis, and also facilitate getting feedback and criticisms from others.  I rather stay out of the process (let you help each other  out) but I will participate whenever I think that a clarification or correction is in order,  or if  a critical reaction deserves a response (and there has been none). I sometimes may post to add some more “food for thought.” Ideally, you are all so good that you will not need me.

 

15 % Participation (in-class and in cyberspace)

 

 

25 % Report:

 

This is a report about one of the assigned readings for that day. Let me know ASAP which one.

 

There are two components to the report:

 

(1) a brief outline of what is (are) the main argument or points made by the author.

 

(2) some critical questions (or general evaluation) with the goal of opening a class discussion. 

 

I recommend that you prepare for the rest of us a handout with an outline or your main points. You could, for example, focus on some claim or argument made by the author by raising some possible objections or some possible ways that the argument could be made stronger. You are not expected to understand everything. In fact, your questions could be about what you do not understand.  There is nothing wrong with asking the rest of the class to help you clarify a particular dense or puzzling passage.

 

35 % Final paper 10 to 15 pages. This is your own personal inquiry about some issue or philosopher in aesthetics. You are welcome to consult with me early in the semester to see if I can guide you regarding the research or general outline of your paper.  You are welcome to share your on going thoughts, arguments, and questions related to the paper with us via the internet. Hopefully we will be able to give you some useful feedback.

 

 

Required Texts:

Packet of Readings (P)

Art as Experience by John Dewey  (D)

In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki  (T)

 

 

(Website for American Society for Aesthetics, source of articles http://www.aesthetics-online.org/)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outline of the Course:

(This is a very tentative guideline. I will make changes. You are responsible for finding out where we are)

           

Jan 15             

 

Intro-Overview:          Aesthetic Judgment and Aesthetic Experience

Plato. Symposium        http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/symposium.html

David Hume (1711–1776),  "Of the Standard of Taste" 

            http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil%20of%20art/hume%20on%20taste.          htm

 

 

Jan   22

 

Kant (1724–1804)  Critique of Judgment  (Guest: Dr. Kristi Sweet)

(from

http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/k/kant/immanuel/k16j/

read only  "The Analytic of the Beautiful (namely, the four moments))"

 

 

Jan  29   

 

Leo Tolstoy ‘s expressionism (1828-1910)  excerpts from What is Art?

http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361r14.html

Clive Bell’s formalism (1881-1964)  ,  “The Aesthetic Hypothesis,” (Chap 1 from his book Art),

http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361r13.html

http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil%20of%20art/clive_bell.htm

http://www.rowan.edu/philosop/clowney/Aesthetics/philos_artists_onart/bell.htm

 

Robert Kraut, Why Does Jazz Matters to Aesthetic Theory? The Journal of Aesthetic and Art Criticism 63:1 Winter 2005.

 

Feb 5

 

Postmodernism and Popular Art  (20th century)

 

Guest: Paul Shockley

Chapters 1, 2, & 5.   The End of Art  by Donald Kuspit (Author)

 

PostModern Architecture and work by Marcel Duchamp

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~twp/architecture/postmoderncom/

http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil%20of%20art/duchamp2.htm#wheel

“State of the Art”

By Barry Gewen

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/books/review/11gewen.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

(includes Audio Slide Show: “Anything Goes”,  performances involving headless chickens, crucifixion and self-mutilation: why has contemporary art become so extreme?)

 

 

Feb 12

 

 “Aesthetics and Postmodernism” by Richard Shusterman (P)

 

Postmodernism

http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/PomoLectureNotes.htm ,

 

“Aesthetics of Popular Art” by David Novitz (P)

 

Feb 19            

 

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

 http://bid.berkeley.edu/bidclass/readings/benjamin.tml

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

http://pages.emerson.edu/Courses/spring00/in123/workofart/benjamin.htm

 

Theodor Adorno  (1903–1969),  “Art, Society, Aesthetics” from his Aesthetic Theory (P).

 

                       

                        Feb 26

 

                        Monroe Beardsley (1915-1985),  “The Aesthetic Point of View” Metaphilosophy, 1,1 (Jan. 1970): 39-58  (P).  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beardsley-aesthetics/)

 

                        George Dickie (1926-   ), “Beardsley’s Phantom Aesthetic Experience” by JP, 62, 5  (March 6, 1965) (P)

 

Arthur Danto (1924-   ), "The Artworld," Journal of Philosophy (1964) (P)

 

 

March 4

 

Frank Sibley,  (1923- 1986)“Aesthetic and NonAesthetic” (Philosophical Review, 1965) and “Aesthetic Concepts” (summary of “Aesthetic Concepts”: http://www.philosophy.ubc.ca/faculty/lopes/339/Sibley.pdf

 

Noel Carroll, “Aesthetic Experience Revisited,” in British Journal of Aesthetics 42 #2           (April 2002): 145-168 (P) 

 

Richard Shusterman, “The End of Aesthetic Experience” http://www.artsandletters.fau.edu/humanitieschair/end-aesth-exp.html

http://londonaesthetics.tripod.com/

 

 

March 18

 

John Dewey (1859-1952)

“The Postulate of Immediate Empiricism”  http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~lward/Dewey/Dewey_1910b/Dewey_1910_09.html“

 

Chapter 2: Experience as Method” from my manuscript (P)

 

“Qualitative Thought” (P)

http://www.american-philosophy.org/archives/2004_Institute/readings/berleant4.htm

 

“Experience, Nature and Art” (P)

 

 

March 25

 

Art as Experience (AE) by  John Dewey:

 

AE: Chap  I  “The Live Creature”

AE: Chap II “The Live Creature and ‘Ethereal Things’”

AE: Chap III “Having an Experience”

 

April 1

 

AE:  Chap XI “The Human Contribution”

AE: Chap XII “The Challenge to Philosophy”

AE: Chap XIII  “Criticism and Perception”

 

 

April 8

 

AE: Chap IV “The Act of Expression”, Chap V “The Expressive Object”

AE: Chap VI  “Substance and Form”,  Chap VII  “The Natural History of Form

 

 

April 15

 

AE: Chap XIV “Art and Civilization”

Junichiro Tanizaki In Praise of Shadows  

 

April 22

                       

Sam Gill, “It’s Where You Put Yours Eyes” (P)