PHILOSOPHY 136 CSUS PHILOSOPHY OF ART (3 Units), Section 2 (GE Area C1) Professor: Dr. Mathias Warnes Spring 2017 Class Number 36048 Email: mathias.warnes@csus.edu Class Meets on T/Th from 4:30-5:45pm in MND 3009 Office hours: T 3:30pm-4:30pm in MND 3032 mathiaswarnes.com Catalog Description: Inquiry into the nature of art, beauty, and criticism, with critical consideration of representative theories. This course fulfills G.E. Area C1. Section Description: In this section, we will interpret philosophical theories of art, beauty, and the creative process by philosophers across the history of Western philosophy, including, but not limited to, writings on art and aesthetics by Plato, Aristotle, Burke, Kant, Schiller, Schelling, Novalis, Hölderlin, Kleist, Nietzsche, Mallarmé, Valéry, Rilke, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Marcuse, Gadamer, Anzaldúa, and Celan. Our focus on theories of art and aesthetic experience will not be exclusive of ongoing reflections and applications of theories of art to art-works and mediums. The question What is art? Why does it matter? will be paramount. Students will also gain a significant exposure to the history of Western art from antiquity to postmodernity, and to the complex relation of genres of aesthetic production, especially in regards to the fine arts: painting, dance, literature, theater, sculpture, architecture, and music. Learning Objectives: By the completion of the course, students should be able to: 1. Identify, and explain the various philosophical approaches to art and beauty. 2. Distinguish objectivity from subjectivity, and explain the role of perspective in aesthetic value. 3. Analyze and evaluate art as a creative process, a cognitive process, an emotive process, and a social process. 4. Recognize, analyze, and evaluate art and beauty in relation to other sources of value, including ethical, epistemic, social/political, and personal value. 5. Apply philosophical methods to examine objects and artifacts for their aesthetic value. 6. Read and comprehend key texts in aesthetics from historical and contemporary sources. 7. Write cogent and clear philosophical analyses of various issues and questions in aesthetics. Course Syllabus (PHIL 136: Philosophy of Art) - 1 of 9
GE AREA C1 LEARNING OUTCOMES Students who complete a GE Area C1 course should be able to: 1. Think conceptually and critically about medium, performance or presentation, and production for at least one art form. 2. Demonstrate knowledge of artistic production, aesthetic properties, and the way creative work is shaped by artistic and cultural forces. 3. Have an acquaintance with a broad understanding of artistic forms, genres, and cultural sources. 4. Be able to develop and defend informed judgments about creative work. 5. Demonstrate knowledge of the conventions of at least one of the disciplines in the arts. Required Text: 1. Cohn, Steve M (Ed.). Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology. Blackwell Publishing, 2008. ISBN- 13: 9781405154352. 2. Coursepack available in PDF under Course Materials at mathiaswarnes.com and on SacCT. Grade Breakdown: Reading Responses 30% Final Essay 15% Midterm Essay 15% Final Exam 20% Active Participation 10% Presentation 10% Reading Responses / Presentations: Reading Responses (30%): Students are expected to read the assigned readings prior to each class. To make sure that you are doing the readings and thinking about them, I require that you write a Reading Response (6 Reading Responses total). Keep in mind that Reading Responses must cover the assigned readings for the current week, or preceding week. Reading Responses on material covered earlier are considered late. Late Reading Responses are accepted at any time for half credit. Length requirements are strict. Reading Response must be between 2-3 pages, 1.5- or double-spaced typed, 12 pt. font, with standard margins. Remember: Reading Responses are handed in at the start of class during our second weekly class session (Thursday). If you can t make a class, you may email me your Reading Response the same class day, but you also need to bring a printed copy of your Reading Response to the next class meeting, or I won t grade it. Although these are Reading Responses, i.e. responses to primary readings in our course, formal content and quality requirements will be strictly enforced. A Reading Response Rubric is available at mathiaswarnes.com. You are encouraged to print and attach this rubric to each submission. Reading Responses will be graded out of 10. Reading Responses that would earn less than 6/10 will be handed back ungraded for revision and resubmission. Between reading & writing expect to spend 3-5 hours of work per Response. Presentation (10%): Each student is expected to do a short (approx. 10 min.) presentation, Course Syllabus (PHIL 136: Philosophy of Art) - 2 of 9
and prepare an accompanying power-point presentation (7-12 slides). You should consider your presentation date as set in stone once scheduled, unless you have a really good reason for needing to reschedule. Group presentations are great so long as the following is observed. A group of 2-3 (3 max) should come together based on shared interests that can be presented together. It must also be clear which parts are your own work, and which are the work of copresenters. How are presentations graded? /10. Fantastic presentations receive a 10/10. Most presentations receive a 7 (good, fulfills requirements), 8 (very good, it is effective/informative), or 9 (excellent, it contains great insights and is of a high educational value). A 6/10 or lower on the presentation indicates that you did not fulfill basic requirements. A Presentation Rubric is available under our Course Materials at mathiaswarnes.com. If you wish to receive your grade breakdown, you must print this rubric and hand it to your instructor on your presentation day. What about topics? Basically, you can choose anything that is directly related to aesthetics / philosophy of art, so long as you focus on 1 primary text (or artist, & set of art-works) and 1 secondary text (i.e. a theoretical interpretation). Choosing a topic is itself a fine art, and requires research. Please come to my office hours (preferred), or send me an email for help figuring out what you would like to explore. It has occurred that students have attempted to plagiarize presentations from online.ppt files. To prevent this, I now require all students to upload a.ppt file to Turnitin on their presentations day. Remember: you must also come to your presentation day with a copy of your presentation on a flashdrive. Don t email it to me, and/or expect to be able to log-in to get the file! This eats up valuable class time! Active Participation (10%): To encourage your reading, and readiness for engaged discussion on our materials, I require you to come to class: 1. having done the readings, and 2. with 1 printed page that addresses, in your own words, 3 relevant questions to the current class readings (as published in the syllabus). To receive credit for this assignment, your questions must address specific content from the beginning (Question 1), middle (Question 2), and end (Question 3) of one assigned reading for that same class session. The questions should reflect a sincere attempt to engage with the reading itself. Each satisfactory 3 question submission is worth 1% towards your participation grade. Please submit your questions only at the end of class, so you may refer to them, and pose them aloud in class if it becomes relevant to the discussion. Since you are not required to do this exercise every session I am expecting quality, and will discard submissions that do not reflect sufficient engagement. Important Note on Attendance Penalties: I do not need to know the reason every time you are absent, and I do not excuse excessive absences, except in extremely rare circumstances. I allow up to 2 full absences without penalty for the entire semester. Above 2 absences, and your grade will be penalized at a rate of 2% per absence (up to 10% of your final grade). Use your absences wisely! If you can t abide by this policy, please consider taking an online course! Midterm Essay (15%): The midterm will consist in a Prospectus and a First Draft of your Final Essay. See mathiaswarnes.com under Course Materials for the instructions and the rubric. Final Essay (15%): Because this is an upper-level GE course, the word requirement for the final essay is set at a minimum of 1500 words. The maximum limit is 1700. You are required to utilize 3-5 sources. To achieve an A or B grade this must break down into 1-2 primary sources (i.e. primary texts in the literature of aesthetics/philosophy of art), 1-2 secondary sources (i.e. scholarly readings of your primary texts and topics/themes), and 1-2 tertiary or Course Syllabus (PHIL 136: Philosophy of Art) - 3 of 9
background sources (webpages such as wikis, etc.). Note: essays based only on tertiary sources i.e. essays that do not engage and cite from primary texts & scholarly books or articles that engage this source directly will not be graded. See How to Write a Philosophical Essay for This Class at mathiaswarnes.com for more on topic suggestions, rubric, formatting requirements, and writing & analysis guidelines. Requirements and grading practice for the midterm and final essay will conform to the following guidelines: 1. Writing Guidelines: http://www.csus.edu/phil/guidance/writing%20guidelines.html 2. Philosophical Analysis: http://www.csus.edu/phil/guidance/how-to-analyze.html 3. Grading Standards: http://www.csus.edu/phil/guidance/grading-standards.html TURNITIN ORIGINALITY VERIFICATION: Consistent with Sacramento State s efforts to enhance student learning, foster honesty, and maintain integrity in our academic processes, this course will use a tool called Turnitin to compare a student s work with an extensive database of prior publications and papers, providing links to possible matches and a similarity score. Midterm Paper and Final Essay and Final Exam must be submitted using this tool, and in hard copy. Questionable Reading Response submissions may be checked using this tool. Students should submit papers to Turnitin without identifying information included in the paper (e.g. name or student number), the system will automatically show this information to faculty in your course when viewing the submission, but the information will not be retained by Turnitin. Originality scores from Turnitin submissions will be definitive of a student s compliance with University Academic Honesty requirements. If there is any variation between the essay submitted to Turnitin and that submitted to the instructor for grading, the Turnitin score is definitive. Be sure not to revise your essay after submission to Turnitin. Login to http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/home to create a student account. Enroll in Course ID# 13102164. Enrollment Password: Aesthetics. Final Exam (20%): The take-home Final (100 points) will test your knowledge of core curricula, and consists of 8 short answer and 1 short essay question. The final will be uploaded to mathiaswarnes.com on Thursday, May 11 th. It is due on Turnitin by May 18 th by 11:59pm PHIL 136 Philosophy of Art: Course Schedule READING SCHEDULE: Please bring *all course materials to each class. Each student is expected to show up to class having done the readings, prepared to hand in homework, and ready to contribute to in-class discussions. Ignorance of assignments, readings, and/or due dates is no excuse. The following schedule is not absolute. The dates serve as markers for when readings will be lectured on and discussed in-class. I will spend a few minutes at the beginning and end of each class discussing where we are at and where you should be. The benefit of this approach is that we will not be too rushed. The cost of this benefit is that you are responsible for knowing where we are on the syllabus. Week One Jan 24, 26 T, Introductions, Syllabi, Lecture: Why Study Philosophy of Art? Th, Aesthetics, Introduction, p. 3-15 Week Two Jan 31, Feb 2 Course Syllabus (PHIL 136: Philosophy of Art) - 4 of 9
Unit 1: Classical Aesthetics: Inspiration, Censorship, Poetry, Love, & Beauty T, Plato on Inspiration, Ion, p. 16-23 Th, Plato on Censorship, Republic, p. 24-23 & Coursepack p. 1-27 Reading Response 1 Due Week Three Feb 7, 9 T, Plato on Beauty, Phaedrus, Coursepack, p. 28-37 Th, Plato Love and Poetry, Symposium, p. 34-40 Reading Response 2 Due Week Four Feb 14, 16 (Feb 17 is Census Date) T, Aristotle on Tragedy, Poetics, p. 41-56 Th, Burke on the Dimensions of Aesthetic Experience, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, p. 113-122 Week Five Feb 21, 23 Unit 2: Neo-Classical and Romantic Aesthetics: Beauty, Sublimity, Play, Performance, Nature, Religion T, Kant on Beauty, Critique of Judgment, p. 131-162 Th, Kant on Sublimity, Critique of Judgment, Coursepack, p. 38-58 Reading Response 3 Due Student Presentations Begin Week Six Feb 28, Mar 2 T, Schiller, Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Humanity, p. 167-169; Schelling, Philosophy of Art, p. 170-179 Th, Novalis, Coursepack, p. 59-65 Course Syllabus (PHIL 136: Philosophy of Art) - 5 of 9
Week Seven Mar 7, 9 T, Hölderlin, Coursepack, p. 70-88 Th, Kleist, Coursepack, p. 66-9 Week Eight Mar 14, 16 Unit 3: Nietzsche s Reflections on Art as Turning Point for Western Aesthetics: From Romanticism, Symbolism, & Modernism, to the Question of Truth in Art T, Nietzsche s The Birth of Tragedy, p. 222-232 Th, Later Nietzsche on Art, Coursepack, p. 89-111 Midterm Essay Due Week Nine Mar 28, 30 Spring Recess (Mar 20-24) T, Heidegger on Nietzsche on Art, Coursepack, p. 112-143 Th, Heidegger on Nietzsche on Art Cont d, Coursepack, p. p. 144-156 Reading Response 4 Due Hear Nietzsche s Original Musical Compositions: http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/hear-friedrich-nietzsche-classical-pianocompositions.html Week Ten Apr 4, 6 T, Mallarmé, Coursepack, p. 157-161 Th, Valéry, Coursepack, p. 162-170 Course Syllabus (PHIL 136: Philosophy of Art) - 6 of 9
Week Eleven Apr 11, 13 T, Rilke, Coursepack, p. 171-191 Th, Heidegger s Origin of the Work of Art, Coursepack, p. 193-202 Reading Response 5 Due Week Twelve Apr 18, 20 Unit 4: Postmodernity and Beyond: The Status of Art in Heideggerian Ontology, Critical Theory, Marxism, Hermeneutics, Celanian Poetics, and Border-Arte T, Adorno s Aesthetic Theory, p. 358-369 Th, Marcuse, The Aesthetic Dimension, Coursepack, p. 203-224 Week Thirteen Apr 25, 27 Primary Reading: T, Benjamin s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, p. 327-343 Th, Gadamer s The Relevance of the Beautiful, Coursepack, p. 225-250 Reading Response 6 Due Week Fourteen May 2, 4 T, Anzaldúa, Coursepack, p. 251-3 Th, Celan, Coursepack, p. 254-72 Last Day for Student Presentations Week Fifteen May 9, 11 Movie (T.B.A. based on Class Vote) Final Essays Due Course Syllabus (PHIL 136: Philosophy of Art) - 7 of 9
Finals Week May 18 Final Exam Due Administrative Matters student s grade cannot be based upon mere attendance, extraneous extra-credit, scholarship, financial aid needs, or other special pleading. It is important that students examine the syllabus and plan appropriately to achieve the grade they desire. I will be happy to meet with you during office hours to discuss how best to achieve your target grade. This class uses standard grading. Please be aware of the significance of the grades. Grading Scale: A= 100%-93%, A-=92-90% B+= 89%=87% B= 86%- 83% B-= 82%-80% C+= 79%-77% C= 76%-73% C-= 72%-70% D= 69%-60% F= 59% or less. A designates exemplary work, an example of what all students should do. B designates good work. Some students seem to believe that B means bad work. This is not the case. B signifies that the student has done good work. C means that the student has done average or mediocre work. D signifies poor work. F signifies that the student has not worked enough to receive course credit. Attendance: Roll is taken at the beginning of each class. Any student who accumulates over six hours (two full classes) of unexcused absence prior to the drop date may be dropped. If you have missed over six hours, and don t want to be dropped, you must contact me with an explanation that counts as a qualified excuse. Also, be advised that lates count towards absences (3 lates = 1 absence). Students leaving class early without notifying me are remarked as absent. After the drop date students who exceed six hours of absence are subject to other adverse consequences: 1. Excessively absent or tardy students will receive grade penalties (2% final grade deduction per class up to 10%); 2. Late journals or other assignments may not be accepted from excessively absent students when they are absent on the due date. Remember, it is your responsibility to drop the class if you stop attending. So while I may drop you, do not rely on me to do this. If you are late to class and miss roll call, it is your responsibility to inform me of your presence. No corrections to the attendance are made on subsequent days. Classroom Behavior: All students are expected to maintain professional and courteous conduct in the classroom at all times. Disruptive behavior will initially receive a reprimand but can result in a student s dismissal from the classroom. Students may, in some cases, only be re-admitted after sitting down for a talk with an academic advisor or on other authority figure. Excessive talking, with the exception of classroom discussion contributions, counts as disruptive behavior. Leaving and re-entering the classroom for reasons other than unavoidable bathroom breaks, eating loudly, sleeping, reading outside materials or being otherwise absorbed, and especially having private conversations, all count as disruptive behavior. In addition, I expect an atmosphere of solicitous attention and respect for the instructor and for other students expressions and opinions, and a consistently objective and empathetic response to the material we study together. Observing these guidelines will ensure a better learning experience. Cell Phones and Other Electronic Equipment: Student distraction due to cell phone and laptop use in class has reached epidemic proportions. Attentive focus on what we are doing as a class is crucial for student success, and our shared classroom learning experience, inspiration, and morale. Therefore, I have an EXTREMELY STRICT cell phone and laptop usage policy. ELECTRONIC DEVICES CANNOT BE USED IN CLASS FOR ANY REASON (unless I give specific permission). If I detect cell phone or laptop usage I will interrupt class to issue ONE warning to the student. If the problem persists that student will be required to leave the classroom for the remainder of the session, and will also forfeit attendance credit for that session. I realize that some students prefer to take notes on their laptops, and I wish I could accommodate this, but it is simply not possible for me to monitor Course Syllabus (PHIL 136: Philosophy of Art) - 8 of 9
when laptops are being used for note-taking, & when they being used for facebook. I make no exceptions when it comes to electronic equipment, so all notes for this class must be taken the old-fashioned way. Plagiarism and Honesty in Academic Work: You are responsible for familiarizing yourselves with the CSUS policy regarding academic honesty. This library link is helpful for understanding what plagiarism is & how to avoid it: http://library.csus.edu/content2.asp%3fpageid=353.html. It is important to know that plagiarism and cheating are serious ethical violations and have consequences. Violations of standards of academic conduct include but are not limited to the following: 1. Receiving or providing assistance on an examination or assignment unless the instructor authorizes such assistance; 2. Using materials other than those permitted by the instructor during an examination; 3. Plagiarizing: failure to indicate the source of borrowed words and ideas. Plagiarism defined: Simply stated, plagiarism is the taking of others words or thoughts without due acknowledgment. 1 This definition applies to both printed, online, & unpublished material. That is, students must acknowledge, through the appropriate forms of citations, any borrowed ideas or phrases, and all direct quotations if more than three or four words. They also must not submit work that has been written, revised, or edited, in part or in whole, by another. I return all plagiarized work ungraded; you may or may not, after a serious meeting with me, and at my discretion, be allowed to resubmit the assignment. In cases of clear and deliberate plagiarism, you will receive a 0 for the assignment, and will not be allowed to resubmit. Repeated instances of plagiarism will result in a failing grade in the course. Plagiarism rules are the same for all work for my course: including reading responses, presentation, exams, and essays. Students with Disabilities: If you have a verified need for an academic accommodation or materials in alternate media (i.e.: Braille, large print, electronic text, etc.) per the Americans with Disabilities Act or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, please contact me as soon as possible to arrange accommodations. It is your responsibility to provide documentation of disability to SSWD and meet with a SSWD counselor to request special accommodation before classes start. SSWD is located in Lassen Hall 1008 and can be contacted by phone at (916) 278-6955 (Voice); (916) 278-7239 (TDD only); or via email at sswd@csus.edu. Other Free Help: For free, one-on-one help with writing in any class, please visit the University Reading and Writing Center in Calaveras 128. The Writing Center can help you at any stage of your reading/writing processes: coming up with a topic, developing, or organizing a draft, understanding difficult texts, or developing strategies to become a better editor. To make an appointment visit the Reading and Writing Center in CLV 128. For current Writing Center hours and more information, visit the website at www.csus.edu/writingcenter. 1 Frederick Crewes, The Random House Handbook, 3 rd ed. New York: Random House, 1980 (p. 405). Course Syllabus (PHIL 136: Philosophy of Art) - 9 of 9