Modern Philosophers about Art (Aesthetics)

On the one hand, unlike many other kinds of philosophy – moral philosophy, natural philosophy, and political philosophy – aesthetics is relatively new, having only officially emerged as a subfield of philosophy in the eighteenth century. On the other hand, since its very beginnings, Western philosophy has been obsessed with the questions about beauty and art. Questions like: what makes poetry distinct to other writing? Why do some works of art affect us so profoundly? Should art be censored, and if so, on what terms? Are some arts better than others, and if so, why? Is the quality of being beautiful fundamentally different from other philosophically relevant qualities, such as being true or being morally good? Does art have to be true, or morally good?

By working historically, this course grounds the emergence of modern aesthetics as a discipline. In doing so, the course reveals how this field’s central questions developed: how certain concerns persisted, how particular problems were resolved, how new issues were generated, and, eventually, how a changed approach to the philosophy of art appeared. The course is premised on the idea that the field of aesthetics should be viewed as a transhistorical conversation, in which people make new contributions, and innovations, both within a longstanding tradition, and in dialogue with the world, as it changes around them.

Part of the beauty of doing aesthetics is that it is more concrete than other subfields of philosophy. Over this course, we will often think about philosophical theories in dialogue with existing works of art and will be looking at the theories of artists as well as philosophers. This will culminate in a gallery visit, where we will examine the kinds of art works each of these philosophers might have had in mind, when elaborating their theories.

• Familiarization with the development of aesthetics
• Close reading of central texts of aesthetics
• Critical discussion of principal aesthetic questions, in dialogue with primary sources
• Application of aesthetic theories to works of art