Concordia University
Winter, 2009
MW 16:15-17:30
Professor Justin Smith
Office: PR-402
Office Hours: M 11-13:00
Course Description:
Classical aesthetics is the philosophical study of beauty. It seeks to answer questions such as: What is beauty? What is it that all beautiful things have in common? What are the standards of judgment by which the beauty of a work of art may be determined? In recent history, philosophers have begun to treat the question of the nature and ontology of works of art as distinct from the problem of beauty, since it is no longer at all clear that in order for a work to be a good work of art, or to be a work of art at all, its creator must seek to make it an instantiation of the Beautiful. Indeed, today some artists consciously aim to create revolting and ugly works. In this course, we will focus on the classical aesthetic question of the nature of beauty in art, as well as on the problem of the ontology of works of art as it has been discussed in recent aesthetic theory, and particularly in the work of two prominent 20th-century aestheticians: Richard Wollheim and Arthur Danto. Throughout, we will stay principally focused on the static visual arts, namely sculpture and painting.
Required Texts:
Steve Cahn and Aaron Meskin (Eds.), Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology (Blackwell Publishing, 2008).
Richard Wollheim, Art and Its Objects (Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Arthur Danto, The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art (Harvard University Press, 1981).
Means of evaluation:
• One midterm exam consisting in short answer and essay questions (20%).
• One final exam consisting in short answer and essay questions (40%).
• One final paper of 5-7 pages on an assigned topic (20%).
• Class attendance and participation (20%).
Schedule of Classes:
Monday, 5 January: Introduction
Wednesday, 7 January: Plato, Republic
Monday, 12 January: Plato, Symposium
Wednesday, 14 January: Aristotle, Poetics
Monday, 19 January: St. Bonaventure, “On the Reduction of the Arts to Theology”
Wednesday, 21 January: Shaftesbury, Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times
Monday, 26 January: David Hume, “Of the Standard of Taste”
Wednesday, 28 January: Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
Monday, 2 February: Gotthold Lessing, Laocoön
Wednesday, 4 February: Friedrich Schiller, Letter on the Aesthetic Education of Man
Monday, 9 February: Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Faculty of Judgment
Wednesday, 11 February (SH): F. W. J. von Schelling, Philosophy of Art
Monday, 16 February (SH): G. W. F. von Hegel, Philosophy of Fine Art
Tuesday, 18 February: Midterm Exam
Monday, 23 February: Winter Break
Wednesday, 25 February: Winter Break
Monday, 2 March: Wollheim, Art and Its Objects
Wednesday, 4 March: Wollheim, Art and Its Objects
Monday, 9 March: Wollheim, Art and Its Objects
Wednesday, 11 March: Wollheim, Art and Its Objects
Monday, 16 March: Wollheim, Art and Its Objects
Wednesday, 18 March: Wollheim, Art and Its Objects
Monday, 23 March: Danto, Transfiguration of the Commonplace
Wednesday, 25 March: Danto, Transfiguration of the Commonplace
Monday, 30 March: Danto, Transfiguration of the Commonplace
Wednesday, 1 April: Danto, Transfiguration of the Commonplace
Monday, 6 April: Danto, Transfiguration of the Commonplace
Wednesday, 8 April: Danto, Transfiguration of the Commonplace (Final Paper Due)
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