Aesthetics (Fil 218/318)

Spring 2015

Time and Space:

Wednesdays 12:15 – 14
Room 215, Sydnesplassen 12/13

Reading list:
George Dickie, Introduction to Aesthetics. New York: Oxford UP (1997)

Steven M. Cahn & Aaron Meskin (eds) Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology. Malden,
MA: Blackwell Publishing (2008)

Matthew Kieran (ed.) Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and The Philosophy of Art.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing (2005)

Levinson: ‘Hume’s Real Problem’ (2002). Supplied in File Storage.

Selection from Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)

Which parts of these books are required reading is apparent in the list below.

Plan for the seminars (subject to change)

1. Introduction and themes ( 14 Jan)

2. The History of Aesthetics I (21 Jan)

Dickie, pp. 6-27 & 44-48.
Plato: Ion and Republic (selection), Cahn & Meskin, pp. 16-33.
Aristotle: Poetics, Cahn & Meskin, pp. 41-56.
Alternatively:
Plato: Symposium (selection), Cahn & Meskin, pp. 34-40.
Augustine: De Musica, Cahn & Meskin, pp. 64-71.

3. The History of Aesthetics II (28 Jan)

Kristeller: ‘Introduction’, Cahn & Meskin, pp. 3-15
Shaftesbury: ’Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times’, Cahn & Meskin, pp. 77-86.
Hutcheson: ‘An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue’. Cahn & Meskin,
pp. 87-102.

4. The Questions of Taste I (4 Feb)

Hume: ‘Of the Standard of Taste’. Cahn & Meskin, pp. 103-112.
Levinson: ‘Hume’s Real Problem’ (2002). On “Mi Side”.

5. The Questions of Taste II (11 Feb)

Kant: Critique of Judgement (selection). Cahn & Meskin, pp. 131-160.
Hannah Ginsborg: ‘Kant’s Aesthetics and Teleology’, SEP:2.1 – 2.5. [Internet] <
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-aesthetics/> [Accessed 19.11.2014]

6. What is Aesthetic Experience? I (18 Feb)

Dickie, pp. 28-43.
Dickie: ‘The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitiude’. Cahn & Meskin, pp. 455-465.
Sibley: ‘Aesthetic Concepts’. Cahn & Meskin, pp. 494-508.

7. What is Aesthetic Experience? II (4 March)

Carroll: ‘Aesthetic Experience: A Question of Content’. In Kieran, pp. 69-97.
Iseminger: ‘The Aesthetic State of Mind’. In Kieran, pp. 98-112.

8. What is Art? I (11 March)

Dickie, pp. 44-73.
Weitz: ‘The Role of Theory in Aesthetics’. Cahn & Meskin, pp. 409-416.
Danto: ‘The Artworld’. Cahn & Meskin, pp. 417-425.
Wollheim: ‘Art and Its Objects. Cahn & Meskin, pp. 466-478.

9. What is Art? II (18 March)

Dickie, pp. 82-93.
Dickie: ‘What is Art? An Institutional Analysis’. Cahn & Meskin, pp. 426-437.
Goodman: ‘When is Art?’. Cahn & Meskin, pp. 438-444.
Carroll: ‘Identifying Art’. Cahn & Meskin, pp. 445-454.

10. Art and Truth (25 March)

Heidegger: The Origin of the Work of Art (selection). Cahn & Meskin, pp. 344-357.
Thomson: ‘Heidegger's Aesthetics’, SEP [Internet]
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2011/entries/heidegger-aesthetics/>. [Accessed
19.11.2014].
Gadamer: Truth and Method (selection). Cahn & Meskin, pp. 370-388.

11. Art and Knowledge (8 April)

Gaut: ‘Art and Cognition.’ In Kieran, pp. 115-126.
Lamarque, ‘Values in the Arts: Marking the Boundaries.’ In Kieran, pp. 127-139.

12. Intention and Interpretation (15 April)

Stecker, ‘Interpretation and the Problem of Relevant Intention.’ In Kieran, pp. 269-281.
Nathan, ‘Art, Meaning, and Artist’s Meaning.’ In Kieran, pp. 282-293.

Exam: Semester essays to be submitted by 19 May 2015 (both Fil 218/318)

Professor Ole Martin Skilleås

Room 309, Sydnespl. 12/13
Ole.skilleas@fof.uib.no
55 58 32 77