Philosophy of Art & Beauty

This course is an exploration of aesthetics and the philosophy of art. In the course, we will explore core topics including representation and depiction, intentionalism and anti-intentionalism, fiction and make-believe, and expression and emotion in different artistic media including painting, photography,

film, dance, craft, and literature. Here are some questions we will be asking.

• How does a drawing or painting represent or depict something? What makes drawing or painting “realistic”? What makes an abstract work about anything?

• Is the meaning of a work determined by the artist’s intentions? If not, what does determine its meaning?

For example, Jonathon Swift’s A Modest Proposal advocates eating children to deal with the Irish famine. “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most  delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled...

In the text, there are no clues that is ironical. But, if this is ironic and surely it is, then this must be because he intends it to be read as ironic. Should literary criticism then be about the minds of artists?

• What makes something fictional? Are we really afraid of Regan McNeil in The Exorcist? How can we feel empathy for the parents in A Tokyo Story? We know the events are not real, so how can we feel genuine emotion?

• How can instrumental music express emotions? Why is Miles Davis’ Blue in Green thought to be sad? After all, there are no sad lyrics and Davis himself doesn’t seem sad playing it.

• Many of us find nature beautiful, awesome, scary, and the like. In fact, we have really important aesthetic experiences there. However, nature, in general, is not an artifact. It isn’t designed. How then are we supposed to appreciate it? Is the most appropriate way to do so as a scientist or a natural historian? Do we get something wrong aesthetically if we misclassify a bird, tree, or rock?

• A lot of the discussion about aesthetics by philosophers, art historians, and even artists themselves focuses on artworks. However, many people create objects, which are best thought of as crafts. For example, a surprisingly large number of people sew and create beautiful objects as the result. What is the difference between art and craft? Why do people often have different attitudes toward them (if we do)?

• What is art? What unifies George Saunders Civilwarland in Bad Decline, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House, Twombly’s Untitled, the Talking Head’s “Burning Down the House,” Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, The Exorcist, and countless other objects as “art”? Is there a single account of what art is that adequately reflects the variety of artworks?