Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art

Course Description

This module explores foundational thinkers, themes, and debates regarding the aesthetic experience of art and nature. It emphasizes the ontological and cognitive frameworks of diverse art forms and practices, while examining the principles of interpretation and critical evaluation. 

Teaching & Learning Methods

The course is delivered through lectures, with supplementary tutorials as required. Lecture materials, including notes and excerpts, are presented in-class and archived on Blackboard for permanent access. Students are expected to complete preparatory reading and independent research prior to each session. 

Assessment & Evaluation

Formative assessment consists of a 2,000-word essay (excluding quotations and references) due at the end of the semester. Detailed submission guidelines and prompts will be provided during the term. 

Texts

Relevant excerpts of texts will be provided.

Sources from which material studied will be selected may also include:

• Clive Cazeaux, ed., The Continental Aesthetics Reader (Routledge, 2011)

• Joseph Tanke and Colin MsQuillan, eds. The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics  (Bloomsbury, 2012)

• Jerrold Levinson, ed., Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics (Oxford University Press, 2003)

• Berys Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes, eds., The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics (Routledge, 2013)

• Stephen David Ross, ed., Art and Its Significance (SUNY Press, 1994).

• Paul Crowther, Defining Art, Creating the Canon (Oxford University Press, 2007)

• Colin Lyas, Aesthetics (Taylor & Francis, 2002)

• Gordon Graham, Philosophy of the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetics (Routledge, 2005)

Indicative contents 

1. Aesthetics and philosophy of art: an introduction

2. Of the standard of taste: David Hume (1711-1776)

3. Art and judgment: Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

4. Art, form, and formalism 

5. Art and expression: theories and debates

6. Art and politics: The Frankfurt School and others

7. Art and psychoanalysis: a philosophical critique

8. Art and imagination: Jean-Paul Sartre and others (1905-1980)

9. Art, difference, and repetition: Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995)

10. Analyzing the language of art: Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) and after

11. Art as symbolic form: Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) 

12. Art and style: Richard Wollheim (1923-2003) and others