Course syllabus

Contemporary Analytic Philosophy of the Arts

 

Lecturer         Stephen Davies

Room 457, Art 1, 14a Symonds Street,
sj.davies@auckland.ac.nz, 3737599 xt 87615,

 

Class: Thursday 1-3, Arts 1 206-214

 

Texts               There is no text.

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Notices

We advise you to consult the University’s “Academic Integrity Guidelines”, “Academic Policies, guidelines and procedures.

Academic Integrity: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/learning-and-teaching/policies-guidelines-and-procedures/academic-integrity-info-for-students/about-academic-integrity.html

 

Academic Conduct: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/the-university/how-university-works/policy-and-administration/teaching-and-learning/students.html

 

 
Assessment

 

100% coursework.

 

Class presentation:

All students are expected to give one class presentation of 10-20 minutes. The presentation should summarise the readings set for the class, outline the issues on which there is disagreement, and explain the nature of the disagreement. Students who do not give a presentation will be penalised 5% on their final result.

 

There are two options for completing the coursework requirement:
Either

One 3000 word essay, worth 60%.

One class presentation assessed at 15%.

Written 400 word summaries/comments on readings for five other classes, worth 25%.

Or

Either two 3,000 word essays, each 50%. Or one 6,000 word essay These can be based on sections of the textbook.

 

Due dates for essays will be advised.

 

 

 

 

LIBRARY SOURCES

GL = General Library; FA = Fine Arts Library

 

GENERAL INTRODUCTIONS:

Stephen Davies, The Philosophy of Art, (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016. Second edition.) ISBN: 978-1-119-09165-3. available in GL as an e-book

Noël Carroll, Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction. (London: Routledge, 1999). ISBN 0-415-15964-4; GL 111.85 C319 & SLC.

Robert Stecker, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: An Introduction, (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010 second edition). ISBN 0-7425-1461-7; SL 111.85 S81 2010.

 

JOURNALS:

British Journal of Aesthetics - GL 111.85 B86; FA SERIALS

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism - FA SERIALS

Philosophy and Literature - GL 809 P56

 

REFERENCE BOOKS :

Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics. J. Levinson (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. GL 111.85 L66o

Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Michael Kelly (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. 4 Vols. GL Reference 111.8503 K29. The second edition of 2014 can be viewed online via the library website.

Routledge Companion to Aesthetics. Berys Gaut & Dominic McIver Lopez (eds.), London: Routledge, 2001. GL 111.85 G27 (Second edition, 2004.)

Blackwell Companion to Aesthetics (second edition), Stephen Davies, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Robert Hopkins, Robert Stecker, & David Cooper (ed). Maldern: Blackwell-Wiley, 2009. GL 111.85 C73 2009

Blackwell Companion to Aesthetics, David Cooper (ed). Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. GL Reference 111.85 C73

Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics. P. Kivy (ed.), Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. GL 111.85 K62b

 

COLLECTIONS OF READINGS:

Aesthetics, James O. Young (ed.), London: Routledge, 2005. 4 Vols. GL 111.85 Y68

Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition, P. Lamarque & S. H. Olsen (eds.), Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. FA 701.17 A254p

 

GENERAL ENCYCLOPEDIAS:

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward Craig (Editor-in-Chief). London: Routledge, 1998. 10 Vols. GL Reference 100 C88

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, P. Edwards (ed.), (London: Macmillan & Free Press, 1967. 8 Vols. GL 103 E26

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Supplement D. Bourchet (ed.), (New York: Macmillan Reference, 1996. GL 103 E26 supp

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, electronic at http://plato.stanford.edu/

 

 

TOPICS and READINGS

Most readings are accessed via Tallis.

 

WEEK 2 Musical expressiveness

 

Davies, Stephen. 'Artistic Expression and the Hard Case of Pure Music,' in Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art, M. Kieran (ed.), (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), 179-191.

 

Levinson, Jerrold. 'Musical Expressiveness as Hearability-as-expression,' in Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art, M. Kieran (ed.), (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), 192-204.

 

 

WEEK 3 Defining art

 

Dickie, George. The Art Circle, New York: Haven 1984, 79-86.

 

Beardsley, Monroe C. 'An Aesthetic Definition of Art' in What Is Art? Edited by H. Curtler. New York: Haven, 1983, 15-29.

 

Gaut, Berys. '"Art" as a Cluster Concept.' In Theories of Art Today, edited by N. Carroll, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 25-44,

 

WEEK 4 Appreciation of nature

 

Carlson, Allen. 'Appreciation and the Natural Environment', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 37 (1979): 267-275.

 

Carroll, Noël. 'On Being Moved by Nature: Between Religion and Natural History,' in Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts, edited by S. Kemal and I. Gaskell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 244-266.

 

Budd, Malcolm, 'The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature,' British Journal of Aesthetics, 36 (1996): 207-222.

 

 

WEEK 5 Literary Interpretation

 

Levinson, Jerrold. 'Defending Hypothetical Intentionalism,' British Journal of Aesthetics, 50 (2010): 139-150.

 

Carroll, Noël, 'Criticism and Intrerpretation,' Sztuka i Filozofia, 42 (2013):

 

Stecker, Robert & Davies, Stephen. 'The Hypothetical Intentionalist's Dilemma: A Reply to Levinson,' British Journal of Aesthetics, 50 (2010): 307-312.

 

WEEK 6 Computers and art

 

Tavinor, Grant. The Art of Videogames, (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). Ch. 9

 

Lopes, Dominic McIver. A Philosophy of Computer Art, (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010). Ch. 7.

 

 

WEEK 7 Philosophers on neuroaesthetics

 

Stokes, Dustin. 'Aesthetics and Cognitive Science,' Philosophy Compass, 4/5 (2009): 715-733.

 

Davies, David. 'This is your brain on art”: what can philosophy of art learn from neuroscience?' in Aesthetics and the Sciences of the Mind, edited by G. Currie, M. Kieran, A. Meskin, and J. Robson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 57-74.

 

Currie, Gregory. 'Aesthetics and Cognitive Science,' in The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, edited by J. Levinson, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, 706-721.

 

 

WEEK 8 Evaluation

 

Kieran, Matthew. 'Why Ideal Critics are Not Ideal: Aesthetic Character, Motivation and Value,' British Journal of Aesthetics, 48 (2008): 278-294.

Ross, Stephanie. 'When Critics Disagree: Prospects for Realism in Aesthetics,' Philosophical Quarterly, 64 (2014): 590-618.

Shelley, James. 'Hume and the Joint Verdict of True Judges,' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 71 (2013): 145-153.

 

WEEK 9 Is there a narrator in fictions?

 

Wilson, George. 'Le Grand Imagier Steps Out: The Primitive Basis of Film Narration' Philosophical Topics 25 (1997): 295-318.

 

Kania, Andrew. 'Against the Ubiquity of Fictional Narrators,' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63 (2005): 47-54.

 

Gaut, Berys. A Philosophy of Cinematic Art, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Ch. 5, sect 5, 218-220.

 

 

WEEK 10 The nature of humour

 

Carroll, Noël. 'On Jokes,' Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 16 (1991): 280-301.

 

Shaw, Joshua. 'Philosophy of Humor," Philosophy Compass, 5 (2010): 112-126.

Morreall, John, "Philosophy of Humor", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/humor/>.

 

 

WEEK 11 Art and ethics

 

Carroll, Noël. 'Art and Ethical Criticism: An Overview of Recent Directions of Research,' Ethics, 110 (2000): 350-387.

 

Carroll, Noël. 'The Wheel of Virtue: Art, Literature, and Moral Knowledge,' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 60 (2002): 3-26.

 

Kieran, Matthew. 'Art, Morality and Ethics: On the (Im)Moral Character of Art Works and Inter-Relations to Artistic Value,' Philosophy Compass, 5 (2006): 129-143.

 

Jacobson, Daniel. 'In Praise of Immoral Art,' Philosophical Topics, 25 (1997): 155-199.

 

WEEK 12 Can pornography be art?

 

Mag Uidhir, Christy, 'Why Pornography Can't be Art,' Philosophy and Literature, 33 (2009): 192-203.

Maes, Hans, 'Drawing the Line: Art versus Pornography,' Philosophy Compass, 6 (2011): 385-397.

Vasilaki, Mimi, ‘Why some Pornography may be Art,’ Philosophy and Literature, 34 (2010): 228-233.

Fokt, Simon, 'Pornographic Art—A Case from Definitions,' British Journal of Aesthetics, 52 (2012): 287-300.

Course summary:

Date Details Due