BASIC ISSUES IN AESTHETIC

Transcription

1 Syllabus BASIC ISSUES IN AESTHETIC Last update HU Credits: 4 Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor) Responsible Department: philosophy Academic year: 0 Semester: Yearly Teaching Languages: Hebrew Campus: Mt. Scopus Course/Module Coordinator: Tatiana Karachentseva Coordinator tatiana.karachentseva@mail.huji.ac.il Coordinator Office Hours: Wednesday, Teaching Staff: Dr. Tatiana Karachentseva page 1 / 5

2 Course/Module description: During the course we will clarify the basic categories of aesthetics: the beautiful and the sublime, the tragic and the comic, art and a work of art, form and content, mimesis and expression, the artist, and aesthetic experience. We will discuss the conditions that led to the emergence of aesthetics in the 18th century, its development in the 19th century and the problematization of its very existence in the 20th century. We will base our discussion on texts constitutive for aesthetics: The works of Kant and Hegel, Nietzsche, and Schiller, Plato and Aristotle, Benjamin, Heidegger and others. We will focus on the two main problems of aesthetics. a) The problem aesthetics' limits, which would be able to determine the object of aesthetics, the nature of its concepts and the form of its relation to ethics and epistemology, on the one hand and on the other hand - its relation to the theory of art. b) The problem of «reading» - that is, the problem of reconstruction of the form of the work of art and understanding its contents. We will analyze and compare different solutions to these two problems, which were formulated in classical aesthetics, as well as in contemporary aesthetics and found expression in thematism, symbolism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, ontology, structuralism and dialogism. Course/Module aims: The courses purpose is to clarify the basic problems of aesthetics and discern the differences of approach to these problems, which constitutes the two main traditions in aesthetics: That of critique of taste and that of philosophy of art. The course aims, at the same time, to provide conceptual tools for understanding and analyzing the contemporary situation of philosophy and art. Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: By the end of this course students will: Be familiar with the basic questions which have preoccupied two aesthetical traditions that of critique of taste and that of philosophy of art. Be able to identify the different approaches to those questions, as influenced by the two traditions. Be able to discern aesthetical motifs and intuitions within philosophical theories. Understand the importance of aesthetical issues for contemporary philosophy. Be able to conceptualize their aesthetical experience. Attendance requirements(%): 100 page 2 / 5

3 Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: There will be a weekly lecture for which students will read key texts and prepare answers to questions set by the teacher. Course/Module Content: Introduction: What is Aesthetics? Aesthetics as a Bridge between theoretical and practical thinking: Kant contra Baumgarten The beautiful is the symbol of the morally good (Kant) contra Good radiating Beauty (Plotinus) The Antinomy of Taste: Kant contra Hume The Negative Pleasure of the Sublime: Kant contra Burke The Question of Art: Kants Genius versus Mimesis The Transition from the "Critique of Taste" to the "Philosophy of Art": the Case of Schiller Hegels Philosophy of Art: the Return of Metaphysics Aesthetics as a Philosophy of Life: Pro et Contra Marx, Nietzsche, Freud and the Linguistic Turn: Aesthetics in XX century. Aesthetics and the Avant-garde Art Aesthetics and the Marxist Tradition Aesthetics and the Case of Cinema Heideggers Anti-Aesthetics Aesthetics, Nietzsche, and the Case of Wagner Aesthetics and Psychoanalysis. The Case of Oedipus Conclusions Required Reading: Immanuel Kant Critique of Judgment, Introduction Alexander Baumgarten Reflections on Poetry Immanuel Kant Critique of Judgment, First Part Critique of Aesthetic Judgment, Section I. Analytic of Aesthetic Judgment; Book I. Analytic of the Beautiful. Plato Hippias Major, Symposium, Phaedrus Plotinus Ennead I, 6; V, 8 H.-G. Gadamer The Relevance of the Beautiful. Thierry de Duve Kant after Duchamp (chapter Kant after Duchamp) Kant, Immanuel Critique of Judgment, First Part Critique of Aesthetic Judgment, Analytic of Aesthetic Judgment; Book One. Analytic of the Beautiful. David Hume On the Standard of Taste. Denis Diderot Rameau's Nephew Giorgio Agamben The Man without Content Longinus On Sublimity. Burke, Edmund A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime page 3 / 5

4 and Beautiful. Kant, Immanuel Critique of Judgment, First Part Critique of Aesthetic Judgment. Section I. Analytic of Aesthetic Judgment. Book II. Analytic of the Sublime. J.-F. Lyotard Answering the Question: What is the Postmodern? Kant, Immanuel Critique of Judgment. Deduction of [pure] Aesthetical Judgments. ## Aristotle Poetics. Plato Republic, Books II, III, X. Schiller, oph Friedrich Letters of an Aesthetic Education of Man. Schiller, Friedrich On the Sublime. G.-W.-F. Hegel Lectures on Aesthetics: Introduction. G.-W.-F. Hegel Lectures on Aesthetics: Of the Symbolic Form of Art. F. Nietzsche The Birth of Tragedy. S. Kierkegaard Either/ Or, Part I, Chapter The Immediate Stages of the Erotic, or Musical Erotic. J.-F. Lyotard The Sublime and the Avant-Garde. J. Ranciere The sublime from Lyotard to Schiller: Two readings of Kant and their political significance. C. Greenberg Avant-garde and Kitsch W.Benjamin The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Th. Adorno Aesthetic Theory J. Epstein The Intelligence of a Machhine. G. Deleuze Cinema-II: the Time-Image A. Badiou Cinema as a Democratic Emblem. J.-F. Lyotard, Acinema. M. Heidegger The Thing. M. Heidegger The Origin of the Work of Art. Nietzsche The Case of Wagner. Adorno In Search of Wagner. S. Zizek Why is Wagner Worth Saving? Badiou Five Lessons on Wagner. Ph. Lacoue-Labarthe Musica ficta: figures of Wagner. S. Freud Dostoevsky and Parricide. J. Lacan The Essence of Tragedy. Lacoue-Labarthe Oedipus as a Figure. J. Ranciטre The Aesthetic Unconscious. Ranciטre The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible. M. Bakhtin Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity. Additional Reading Material: Umberto Eco History of Beauty WBadysBaw Tatarkiewicz A History of Six Ideas: an Essay in Aesthetics Leo Tolstoy What is Art? Badiou, Alain Handbook of Inaesthetics page 4 / 5

5 Powered by TCPDF ( Maurice Merleau-Ponty The Visible and the Invisible Benedetto Croce Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic S. Langer Philosophy in a New Key Terry Eagleton The Ideology of the Aesthetic Arthur Danto The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art Course/Module evaluation: End of year written/oral examination 35 % Presentation 0 % Participation in Tutorials 30 % Project work 0 % Assignments 35 % Reports 0 % Research project 0 % Quizzes 0 % Other 0 % Additional information: page 5 / 5