Aesthetics pervades our everyday life: we pursue beauty in ourselves, others, and our surroundings, we spend time watching movies and television programmes, listening to music, and discussing these. Moreover, every year, a considerable portion of public subsidies is reserved for the arts and other, broadly aesthetic, purposes, including the preservation of certain natural reserves, etc. Yet what is art or aesthetic value? Are aesthetic judgements are subjective or objective? Is the value of artworks related to their moral or epistemic values? These and other such questions remain amongst the most vexed. This module will address such questions head-on, exploring both traditional theories and ongoing debates in aesthetics, thereby offering an introduction to some key concepts and debates in aesthetics in the philosophy of art. Topics to be discussed may include Hume's and Kant's aesthetic theories, the definition of art, the question of why we enjoy watching sad or scary movies, and whether immoral art can be good art. 

• Display familiarity with some key theories in Western aesthetics and explain philosophical issues they raise. 
• Critically assess such theories and engage in some of the core debates in contemporary aesthetics. 
• Identify problems with philosophical positions in aesthetics as well as potential solutions to them. 
• Construct arguments, both verbally and in written work, drawing on relevant literature and using carefully selected examples. 
• Deploy concepts from philosophical aesthetics in discussing and analysing artworks. 
• Write careful, well-organised philosophical prose.  
• Work independently. 

The module will be delivered through a mix of large group and small group sessions, including, where relevant, asynchronous materials such as lecture recordings. Full details on the delivery mode of this module will be available on Learning Central at the start of the academic year – and may be, in part, determined by Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance.   

Transferable / Employability Skills: 

It is worth bearing in mind that, even though the point of the module is to do philosophy, many of the skills you’ll be developing are also highly valued by graduate employers. These include: 

• Critical Thinking: e.g. the ability to understand, structure and critically evaluate the key points and arguments made in written texts and discussions––achieved through e.g. reading, small group activities in lectures and seminars, plenary discussions in seminars, reflecting on lecture materials, essay and exam preparation and writing. 
• Communication: the ability to formulate and articulate your critical thinking, both orally and on paper, in ways that others can grasp and engage with––achieved through e.g. small group work in seminars, seminar discussions, essay/exam writing. 
• Organisation: the ability to organise and coordinate workloads––achieved through balancing e.g. reading, seminar preparation, essay/exam preparation. 
• Working with others: e.g. co-constructing ideas, responding sensitively to others––achieved through e.g. small group work in seminars, group presentations. 

Topics covered on the module may include the below, though not necessarily in that order. Please note that these are subject to change and that the readings below are indicative and not exhaustive. 

Section 1: Aesthetic Theories 

We will explore some central theories of Western philosophical aesthetics on the nature of aesthetic value, judgement, and experience. 

Possible readings: 

- George Dickie, “The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude”, American Philosophical Quarterly, 1:1 (1964), 56-65. 

- David Hume, "Of the Standard of Taste", in Cahn & Meskin (2008). 

- Sherri Irvin, “The Pervasiveness of the Aesthetic in Ordinary Experience”, British Journal of Aesthetics, 48:1 (2008), pp.29-44. 

- Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgement, in Cahn & Meskin (2008). 

- Frank Sibley, "Aesthetic Concepts", Philosophical Review, 68:4 (1959), pp.421-450. 

- Kendall L. Walton, "Categories of Art", Philosophical Review, 79:3 (1970), pp.334-367. 

Section 2: Art and its Value 

We will look at attempts to define art and will discuss whether art's value is intrinsic, or whether art is valuable at least in part for its capacity to teach us. We will explore whether the morality of an artwork can improve or worsen that work. 

Possible readings:  

- Catharine Abell, "Art: What it is and Why it Matters", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 85:3 (2012), pp.671-691. 

- Noël Carroll, “Identifying Art”, in his Beyond Aesthetics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp.75-100. 

- Arthur C. Danto, "The Artworld", The Journal of Philosophy, 61:19 (1964), pp.571-584.  

- Berys Gaut, “The Ethical Criticism of Art”, in Gaut and Lopes (2013). 

- Jenefer Robinson, “L’education sentimentale’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 73:2 (1995), pp.212-226. 

- Anne. W. Eaton, “Robust Immoralism”, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 70:3 (2012), pp.281-292. 

Section 3: Further Issues and Critiques of Philosophical Aesthetics 

In this section we will look at some more specific topics in aesthetics, which may include conceptual art or the paradoxes of tragedy and horror, and conclude with criticisms of philosophical aesthetics. 

Possible readings: 

- John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London: Penguin, 2008). [This book is based on a BBC documentary series, which is available to watch on YouTube.] 

- Mary Devereaux, "Oppressive Texts, Resisting Readers, and the Gendered Spectator: The ‘New’ Aesthetics", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 48:4 (1990), 337-47. 

- Susan L. Feagin, "The Pleasures of Tragedy", American Philosophical Quarterly, 20:1 (1983), pp.95-104. 

- Linda Nochlin, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?", ARTnews, 1971. 

- Paul C. Taylor, "Beauty to Set the World Right: The Politics of Black Aesthetics", in his Black is Beautiful (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016), pp.77-103.