PHIL3607 Contemporary Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art

This topic will investigate aesthetic values such as beauty, ugliness, comedy, tragedy, drama, horror, and sublimity. Discussion will range freely over different art forms and the appreciation of nature. Questions to be addressed include: Are values such as beauty purely in the eye of the beholder? How does non-vocal music express and arouse emotions? Why do we value works that make us sad or frightened? What makes an object an artwork at all? This topic is particularly recommended for students both in philosophy and the creative arts.

This topic aims to:

• Introduce students to key issues and theories in contemporary aesthetics and the philosophy of art
• Provide students with sufficient historical and theoretical background that they can read and appraise the arguments of works in aesthetics for themselves
• Enable students to reflect philosophically on their own creative and appreciative art activities
• Improve students' critical thinking and communication skills generally

1. Understand key ideas in the philosophy of art and aesthetics
2. Improve their capacity to critically evaluate philosophical theories
3. Improve their capacity to present and defend their own philosophical ideas
4. Grasp the relevance of the issues covered to wider issues in value theory and philosophy more generally
5. Understand and defend the motivation and values behind their own aesthetic practices