Aesthetics syllabus
Aesthetics, Fall 2010; Jeffrey Wattles, instructor
Philosophy 31060, section 001 (CRN 12213) T/R 11:00 – 12:15, Bowman 220
The main goals of the course are to introduce the student to the history and logic of Western philosophy’s ways of thinking about questions of beauty and the aesthetics of the fine arts from classical Greece down to the present. Objectives: students will be able to restate key teachings in writing, handle multiple-choice questions that test understanding as well as recall, and apply versions of aesthetic theories in experience as reported in papers.
Text: (1) Stephen David Ross, ed., Art and Its Significance, 3rd edition, State University of New York Press, 1994. ISBN: 0-7914-1852-9.
Expectations and evaluation. We are a community of inquiry, and our interaction has a life of its own; so you are expected to attend regularly, be on time, have the reading done, and be ready to participate . . . and actually participate at least a few times during the semester—ask or answer a question, report a nice insight! You can miss four classes and still get full credit, but if you fail if you miss eight. (10%—good attendance and nothing more gets you a C.) If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get notes from someone, to ask the instructor if you still have questions, and to ask the instructor for whatever may have been handed back during your absence. In addition, there are three quizzes (10% each) and two papers (25% and 25%).
Papers must be well written to receive a C or above. For a quick introduction to some of the standards, see http://www.personal.kent.edu/~jwattles/papers.htm . Writing—a skill that schools sometimes fail to teach—is important for your career, especially when so much communication is mediated by machines. English is a first or second language in many nations, and to use the language well is a service to our world. If I don’t fuss about writing, you should see what some folks hand in! So I fuss, and I generally get quite decent writing. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the Writing Center (http://dept.kent.edu/english/WritingCent/writngcenter.htm). Speaking of communication, the University obliges you to check your kent.edu e-mail (or whatever address may be used on Flashline). If I have messages to send to the whole class, e.g., to change an assignment, or keep in touch in an emergency, I will use those addresses.
For many classes, there are materials to read, print out, and bring with you from this website: http://sites.google.com/a/kent.edu/jwattles. While that site is being constructed, find additional things—but not its obsolete syllabus—here: http://www.personal.kent.edu/~jwattles/esthetic.htm. Other notes, e.g., on Plato, are here: http://www.personal.kent.edu/~jwattles/classes.htm.
My office hours are MWF 9:40-9:50 and 10:50-11:20, and TR 10:45-10:55 and 12:20-1:50 (Bowman 320H) and by appointment (330-672-0276; e-mail: jwattles@kent.edu).
University policy 3342-3-01.8 deals with the problem of academic dishonesty, cheating, and plagiarism. None of these will be tolerated in this class. The sanctions provided in this policy will be used to deal with any violations. If you have any questions, please read the policy at http://www.kent.edu/policyreg/policydetails.cfm?customel_datapageid_1976529=2037779.
University policy 3342-3-01.3 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access to course content. If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments. Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.kent.edu/sas for more information on registration procedures).
University policy requires all students to be officially registered in each class they are attending. Students who are not officially registered for a course by published deadlines should not be attending classes and will not receive credit or a grade for the course. Each student must confirm enrollment by checking his/her class schedule (using Student Tools in FlashLine) prior to the deadline indicated. Registration errors must be corrected prior to the deadline.
The Philosophy Department Grievance Procedure for handling student grievances is in conformity with the Student Academic Complaint Policy and Procedures set down as University Policy 3342-4-16 in the University Policy Register. For information concerning the details of the grievance procedure, please see the Departmental Chairperson.
Schedule of Activities
Week 1. Tuesday, August 31. Introduction to philosophy, aesthetics, Plato, and the first project.
Classical Greek aesthetics: The reality of beauty
Thursday, September 2. Plato’s Ion. What is Plato’s concept of techne (know-how, craft, art, skill)? Does Ion have a techne? What is Plato’s concept of inspiration? How does the Muse connect the audience with the artist? Read also on the concept of craft two pages from the Collingwood selection, 192-193. When have you felt most inspired?
Week 2. Tuesday 7. Read for mastery the selection from Plato’s Symposium and read the web document on the Symposium. Why, according to Socrates, is it misleading to describe say that the gods love beauty?
Thursday 9. Plato’s Republic. Examine the web document, Two arguments on Plato’s aesthetics.
Week 3. Tuesday 14. Complete the selection from the Republic.
Thursday 16. A lecture on passages from the Aristotle selection and the essay by David Hume.
Modern Aesthetics: the role of mind in aesthetic judgment
Week 4. Tues. 21. Immanuel Kant (German [actually Prussian: Germany was not a unified nation until 1870] 1724-1804) pp. 95-103. How do our judgments regarding beauty relate to our cognitive involvement with truth and our practical commitment to goodness? What’s the difference between what is pleasing or agreeable and what is beautiful? Print out and read the web notes on Kant, reading day by day (from the instructor’s notes, not those of Burnham that precede them) what relates to each assignment.
Thurs. 23, Kant, 103-113. How can judgments regarding beauty that are largely grounded in the structure of the human subject have any sort of universality and necessity?
Week 5. Tues. 28. Kant, 113-120. In what way is the sublime said to go beyond the beautiful?
Thurs. 30. 120-33: How can artistic beauty symbolize moral regard for all humankind? Read also art critic Clive Bell, pp. 186-90, for an example of formalist aesthetics. Quiz 1, on which you will be expected to write out details of Plato’s ladder to beauty in the Symposium.
A spiritually integrated aesthetics of nature
Week 6. Tuesday October 5. John Muir and the aesthetics of nature (document to be e-mailed by the instructor).
Thursday 7. Continuing with Muir and other theorists of environmental aesthetics.
Aesthetics in major 19th-century philosophers
Week 7. Tuesday 12. Project 1 due. Hegel’s aesthetics of engagement with the peak cluster of themes of one’s historical age. Tolstoy’s aesthetics of feeling.
Thursday 14. Nietzsche, text selections.
Art as a paradigm of experience in the philosophy of John Dewey
Week 8. Tuesday 19. John Dewey, read the first half of the text selection. Project two: artistic living—appreciation, design, performance.
Thursday 21. Complete the Dewey selection.
Art as disclosing the world of the work
Week 9. Tuesday 26. Martin Heidegger, read the first third of the text selection. Class will emphasize the account of Van Gogh’s painting of (a peasant woman’s) pair of shoes.
Thursday 28. Read the second third of the text selection. Class discussion will focus on the account of the Greek temple.
Week 10 (last week to withdraw). Tuesday, November 2. Complete the text selection. Class discussion will focus on the relation of truth and beauty.
Thursday 4. Heidegger on architecture: “Building, Dwelling, Thinking.” http://students.pratt.edu/~arch543p/readings/Heidegger.html
Week 11. Tuesday 9. Theodore Adorno. List the points of Adorno’s analysis of escapist music in German society in the 1930s. Which of these points hold today? What does the term “escapist” imply for the alternatives that confront the artist? Are there terms that better express human choices for recreation and the arts? Explain. Quiz 2.
Thursday 11. Veterans Day.
Postmodernism and aesthetics
Week 12. Tuesday 16. Derrida, Letter to Peter Eisenman.
Thursday 18. Continued.
Week 13. Tuesday 23. Concepts of truth.
Thursday 24, Thanksgiving.
Aesthetics in the tradition of analytic philosophy
Week 14. Tuesday 30. Nelson Goodman.
Thursday, December 2. Nelson Goodman.
Week 15. Project 2 due. Tuesday 7. Lecture on the concept of artistic living.
Thursday 9. Review of projects and discussion of Danto.
Final examination, Wednesday, December 15, 12:45-3:00.