Course Description
This course will present students with an opportunity to think philosophically about the nature of human creativity and to discuss specific works of art in music, painting and literature. The course provides students with an introduction to the main issues concerning the nature of art and of art works, including consideration of the question, “What is art?”, as well as inquiry into competing theories of art, such as art as expression, art as representation, and art as historical and/or institutional artifact. Some consideration may also be given to theories of aesthetic criticism which focus upon issues such as beauty, taste, personal experience, meaning and truth. The course may include analysis of the aesthetic theories developed by thinkers found within the history of philosophy, such as selections from Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Dewey, and/or selections from the writings of more contemporary philosophers, such as Benjamin, Danto, Gadamer, Derrida, Adorno, and Goodman.
Course Content
The course may include thematically materials which pertain to either Art Theories or Art Criticism or both.
Said materials may include themes such as the following:
Theories of Art
- Art as imitation: the mimetic conception of art and its relation to notions of truth.
- Art as the communication of emotion and feeling: art is the expression of inspiration, rapture, frenzy, divine intoxication.
- Art as the expression of imagination: why art is not limited to the real and to verisimilitude.
- Art as the expression of symbolic form and metaphor: the capacity of art to transcend the literal in favour of what possesses symbolic yet shared meaning.
- Art as social criticism: the relation of art to society, and the thesis that the work of art conflicts with socially accepted values, that the function of art is social criticism.
- Art as palliative and metaphysical solace: art is the attempt to respond creatively and so to overcome the emptiness and futility of any existence.
Art Criticism
- Art and sensation: the experience and criticism of art as a specific kind of pleasure.
- Art criticism and the concept of “taste”: aesthetic judgement as a disinterestedness and art as purposeless purposiveness.
- Art criticism and beauty as the ideal of art: the aesthetic experience of order and form as perfection.
- Art criticism and the experience of the irrational: the impossibility of cognitive or epistemological criteria in the response to art.
- Art criticism and the problem of interpretation: the hermeneutical circle and the role of tradition in artistic self-conception and art criticism.
Learning Activities
The course will employ a variety of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including some of the following: any combination of lecture and seminar. Parts and/or entire classes may be devoted to formal lectures or to informal discussions. Usually some combination of both is employed to ensure that assigned readings are explained and discussed.
Means of Assessment
Evaluation will be based upon course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with Douglas College policy. The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific evaluation criteria at the beginning of the semester.
Any possible combination of the following which equals 100%:
| |
Percent Range |
Example |
|
| Tests, Quizzes, Short Written Assignments |
30% – 60% |
Five 10% Tests |
50% |
| Written Class Presentations, Argument Analyses, Exams |
20% – 50% |
Two 20% Analyses |
40% |
Instructor’s General Evaluation
(may include attendance class participation,
group work, homework, etc.) |
0%– 20% |
Attendance/
Participation |
10% |
| Total |
|
|
100% |
(No one evaluation component within each category may exceed 40%)
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of the course the successful student will be able to:
- Explain and in other ways demonstrate an understanding of the main aesthetic theories that are covered within the course.
- Critically analyze essays that pertain to art and the criticism of art, including the ability to demarcate objective criteria employed in the assessment of art works.
- Apply basic reasoning skills to the topics covered within the course, including the ability to reason from evidence to conclusions.
- Develop some philosophical appreciation of the significance of art works and understand the basis of aesthetic experience, such as the experience of beauty.
- Contrast and compare the different theories about art and the competing accounts of art criticism.
- Formulate their own thinking with respect to the main topics covered within the course.
Textbook Materials
Texts will be updated periodically. Typical examples are:
- Carroll, Noel. (2001). Theories of Art Today. London: Routledge.
- Cooper, D. (Ed.). (1992). A Companion to Aesthetics. Oxford: Blackwells
- Dickie, G. & Sclafani, R. (Eds.). (1998). Aesthetics: a Critical Anthology. New York: St. Martin’s Press
- Galt, Berys & Lopes, D.M. (Eds.). (2001). The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics. London: Routledge.
- Goldblatt, D. & Brown, L. (Eds.). (1996). Aesthetics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
- Hofstaeder, A. (Ed.). (1996). Philosophies of Art and Beauty. Chicago: University of Chicago.
- Maynard, P. & Feagin, S. (Eds.). (1997). Aesthetics: an Oxford Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Ross, S. (Ed.). (2000). Art and its Significance. New York: SUNY.