Phi 220—Aesthetics
Spring 2016—Glen Helman
Instructor: Glen Helman, Assoc. Prof. of Philosophy and Acting Chair
E-mail: helmang@wabash.edu
Office: Center 311, (765) 361-6334
My posted hours currently are 3:10-4:10 on M and 1:10-2:00 on F (but this can change). I usually arrive on campus between 8 and 10 and leave between 4 and 6, and you stand a good chance of finding me in my office whenever I am not teaching. My other classes meet at 2:10 MWF and 2:40 TTh (the latter in the second half semester only). (While I am in my office most noon hours, the noon hour is also a common time for meetings and other events, as is the afternoon after 4.)
Home: 314 W. Wabash Ave., (765) 362-0428
This is your best bet evenings and weekends, but try my office too.
Cell phone: (765) 366-0791
Texts
In the bookstore:
Hofstadter & Kuhns (eds.), Philosophies of Art & Beauty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964).
On JSTOR:
Arthur Danto, “The Artworld,” The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 61 (1964), pp. 571-584 (on JSTOR)
───, “Art, Evolution, and the Consciousness of History,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 44 (1986), pp. 223-233 (on JSTOR)
───, “Kalliphobia in Contemporary Art,” Art Journal, vol. 63 (2004), pp. 24-35 (on JSTOR)
Nelson Goodman, “Art and Inquiry,” Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, vol. 41 (1967-1968), pp. 5-19 (on JSTOR)
John Hospers, “The Croce-Collingwood Theory of Art,” Philosophy, vol. 31 (1956), pp. 291-308 (on JSTOR)
Kendall Walton, “Listening with Imagination: Is Music Representational?” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, pp. 47-60 (on JSTOR)
───, “Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism,” Critical Inquiry, vol. 11 (1984), pp. 246-277 (on JSTOR)
Handouts in PDF format (to be available on the website and Canvas):
Cive Bell, Art, ch. I, §I and sel. from §III
Edward Bullough, selections from “‘Psychical Distance’ As a Factor in Art and an Aesthetic Principle,” The British Journal of Psychology, vol. 5 (1912), pp. 87-118
Edmund Burke, selections from A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
Benedetto Croce, Aesthetic, chs. 1, 2, and 15
David Hume, “The Standard of Taste” and sels. on beauty
Wassily Kandinsky, selections from Concerning the Spiritual in Art
Immanuel Kant, selections on the sublime from the Critique of Judgment
Friedrich Nietzsche, “On Truth and Falsity in their Ultramoral Sense”
Friedrich Schiller, selections from Letters on the Aesthetical Education of Man
Leo Tolstoy, selections from What is Art?
Fuller contexts for many of these selections can be found in HTML format on the course Canvas site.
Grading
Requirements: (1) Two short papers (the first paper 2-3 pp. and the second paper c. 4-5 pp.) on topics arising from the texts you read; in each cases, I will suggest the form of the paper but you will have substantial freedom in choosing the topic. (2) A longer paper (5-7 pp.) developing your own views on a topic related to what you have read. (3) Two tests—the first shortly before midsemester and the second during exam week—including both short and longer essay questions on key concepts from the course. (4) Regular, prepared, and active participation in class (which may include completion of occasional brief writing assignments). Your final grade will be based on these in the following way: 10%, 15%, and 25% for the papers, 13% and 17% for the tests, and 20% for class participation.
Attendance and due dates: As part of my evaluation of your participation, I will be keeping a record of your attendance. You will be automatically excused if you notify me in advance that you will miss a class (e-mail or voice-mail messages are fine). After the fact, you will be excused if you give me a good reason or a dean’s excuse. Due dates for the papers are subject to negotiation. In each case I have set a default due date for the class (2/12, 3/23, and 4/20) and but I am willing to set individual due dates (within reason) for those who find the default dates inconvenient. My policy on missed deadlines is similar to that on missed classes: I’ll re-negotiate the deadline (again within reason) if I hear in advance, but after the fact I’ll expect an excuse. Unexcused missed deadlines will have an effect on your participation grade.
Calendar
Calendar. The assignments below are approximate and tentative. Sometimes a reading-guide handout will specify the details of an assignment, and it may include passages that are part of your assignment. Boxed dates are dates of tests or default due dates for papers (the latter are links to paper assignments when bold).
| 1/18 | introduction | |
| 1/20 | Plato | imitation and knowledge (HK 30-38, 45-49) |
| 1/22 | mastering appearances and passions (HK 38-45, 49-52) | |
| 1/25 | narrative vs imitation, simplicity of harmony and rhythm (HK 8-29) | |
| 1/27 | Aristotle | poetry, truth, and the emotions (HK 97-100, 106-7, 122-4, 102, 109-12, 137) |
| 1/29 | Walton | “Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism,” §§1-4, pp. 246-262 (on JSTOR) |
| 2/1 | “Transparent Pictures,” §§5-9, pp. 262-273 (on JSTOR) | |
| 2/3 | “Listening with Imagination: Is Music Representational?” pp. 47-54c1 (on JSTOR) | |
| 2/5 | “Listening with Imagination,” pp. 54c1-60 (on JSTOR) | |
| 2/8 | Plato | inspiration and beauty (HK 53-63, 73-7) |
| 2/10 | Plotinus | beauty and the soul (HK 140-50, 165-7) |
| 2/12 | beauty and wisdom (HK 151-64, 168-70) (ppr 1 due) | |
| 2/15 | Augustine | rhytm, beauty, and numerical order (HK 185-202) |
| 2/17 | Danto | “Kalliphobia in Contemporary Art” (on JSTOR) |
| 2/19 | Shaftesbury | enjoyment vs possession, our sense of beauty (HK 244-9, 252-61) |
| 2/22 | Hume | “The Standard of Taste” (Hume handout) |
| 2/24 | Kant | disinterested pleasure (HK 280-6, 293-301) |
| 2/26 | subjective universality (HK 286-93, 301-4, 312-3) | |
| 2/29 | contesting taste (HK 308, 331-5) | |
| 3/2 | test 1 | |
| 3/4 | Burke & Kant | the sublime (Burke & Kant handout) |
| spring break | ||
| 3/14 | Kant | genius (HK 313-17, 321-23, 337f) |
| 3/16 | ideals and aesthetic ideas (HK 318-21, 335-7) | |
| 3/18 | Schiller | art, play, and freedom (Schiller handout) |
| 3/21 | Schelling | resolving an infinite contradiction in a finite product (HK 347, 349, 354-5, 361-74) |
| 3/23 | Hegel | aspiring after and attaining the Ideal (HK 424, 428-33, 437-40) (ppr 2 due) |
| 3/25 | transcending the Ideal (HK 434-6, 440-5) | |
| 3/28 | Danto | “The Artworld” (on JSTOR) |
| 3/30 | “Art, Evolution, and the Consciousness of History” (on JSTOR) | |
| 4/1 | Schopenhauer | art, ideas, and will (HK 448-51, 456-60, 480-95) |
| 4/4 | Nietzsche | the discharge of music in pictures (HK 498-504, 514-7, 525-7) |
| 4/6 | aesthetic Socratism wrecks tragedy (HK 539-44, 550-4) | |
| 4/8 | making truth (Nietzsche handout) | |
| 4/11 | Heidegger | world and earth (HK 662-668, 670-677) |
| 4/13 | truth and rift-design (HK 677-703) | |
| 4/15 | Goodman | “Art and Inquiry” (on JSTOR) |
| 4/18 | Tolstoy | art as the communication of emotion (Tolstoy handout) |
| 4/20 | Croce | intuition & expression vs communication (Croce handout) (paper 3 due) |
| 4/22 | Hospers | “The Croce-Collingwood Theory of Art,” sels. (on JSTOR) |
| 4/25 | Bullough | aesthetic distance (Bullough handout) |
| 4/27 | Bell | significant form (Bell handout) |
| 4/29 | Kandinsky | the spiritual in art (Kandinsky handout) |
| exam week | ||
| 5/6 | exam | Fri. 9 a.m.: test 2 |