AESTHETICS

As part of the Master Degree in Philosophical Sciences, the course of Aesthetics Sp. will expose the student to some of the most significant areas of the contemporary aesthetic debate, in particular, those relating to the various forms of naturalization in aesthetics. The course will develop the student's ability to compare the set of contents and tools of the aesthetic and philosophical tradition (acquired during the previous three years) with the contemporary discussion, developing an interpretative approach that should be critical and robust, on the one hand, as well as open and non-reductive, on the other hand.

Knowledge and understanding: As a result of this course students should acquire the conceptual tools for understanding the contemporary aesthetic debate as well as for contextualizing it on its theoretical and historical background.
Applying knowledge and understanding: As a further goal, students should achieve the capacity to use concepts and arguments arising from the aesthetic debate to interpret the different forms of artistic productions and, more generally, the cultural world.
Making judgments: The course is intended to provide some basic tools for a critical reconstruction of the debate on the naturalization of the arts.
By the end of the course, students should gain adequate communicative skills apt to analysing the current debate and expressing their own evaluations with clarity as well as on the basis of convenient arguments.

Students are requested to know the main aspects of Kant's, Schiller's and Hegel's aesthetic theories before the beginning of the course.

The varieties of aesthetic naturalization.
At least since the time of Kant and Schiller, philosophical aesthetics questioned the links between art and nature, as well as between art and human nature. The course will engage with the main positions of the contemporary debate on the question of the natural roots of artistic practices, highlighting the divergences between reductionist positions, continuity and emergentism.
Four major areas of the current debate will be considered: pragmatist or neo-pragmatist aesthetics (Dewey, Margolis, Johnson), theories on the evolutionary origins of the arts (Dutton, Davies, Dissanayake), so-called neuroaesthetic (Zeki, Starr, Chatterjee) and embodied aesthetics (Noe, Gallese, Gallagher).

The following texts will be referred to during the lessons.
Students are requested to contact the teachers for establishing an agreement about the selection of texts representing a basis for the writing of one's own essay.

First Part:
- Zeki S. (2003), La visione dall’interno. Arte e cervello, Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.
- Chatterjee, A , A., Vartanian (2014), “Neuroaesthetics”, Trends in Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(7): 370-375
- Starr, G. (2013), Feeling Beauty: The Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience, Cambridge: The MIT Press
- Pearce M. et al. (2016) “Neuroaesthetics: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Cognitive Experience”, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(2): 265-279.
- Pelowski M. et al. (2017) “Move me, astonish me. . . delight my eyes and brain: The Vienna Integrated Model of top-down and bottom-up processes in Art Perception (VIMAP) and corresponding affective, evaluative, and neurophysiological correlates” Physics of Life Review, 21: 80-125.

Second Part:
- Dutton, D. (2009), The Art Instinct, Oxford U.P.
- Miller, G. (2001), Aesthetic fitness: How sexual selection shaped artistic virtuosity as a fitness indicator and aesthetic preferences as mate choice criteria, Bulletin of Psychology and The Arts, Bulletin of Psychology and the Arts
- Pinker, S. (2000), Il senso della vita, in Come funziona la mente, Mondadori
- Tooby, Cosmides (2001), Does Beauty Build Adapted Minds? Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Aesthetics, Fiction and the Arts, SubStance 94/95
- Dissanayake, E. (1980), Art as a Human Behavior: An Ethological View of Art, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
- Dissanayake, E. (1992),The Core of Art: Making Special, in Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Come From an Why, Free Press
- Dissanayake, E. (2008), The Arts After Darwin: Does Art Have an Origin and Adaptive Function?, in in Kitty Zijlmans & Wilfried van Damme (eds.), World Art Studies: Exploring Concepts and Approaches. Amsterdam: Valiz.
- Dissanayake, E. (2009), The Artification Hypothesis and its Relevance to Cognitive Science, Evolutionary Aesthetics, and Neuroaesthetics, Cognitive Semiotics, 5:

Third Part:
- Dewey J. ((1989) Art as Experience, The Later Works, 1925-1953, Volume 10: 1934, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale & Edwardsville;traduzione italiana a cura di G.Matteucci, Arte come esperienza, Aesthetica Edizioni
- Margolis, J. (2009), The Arts and the Definition of the Human, Stanford University Press
- Margolis, J. (2004), Placing Artworks, Placing Ourselves, Journal of Chinese Philosophy
- Johnson, M. (2007), The Meaning of the Body. Aesthetics of Human Understanding, University of Chicago Press

Fourth Part:
- Freedberg, D.; Gallese, V. (2007). “Motion, emotion and empathy in esthetic experience”, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(5): 197–203.
- Gallagher, S. (2011), “Aesthetics and kinaesthetics”, In J. M. Krois (a cura di), Sehen und Handeln. Akademie Verlag: John Wiley and Sons, Inc, pp. 99-113.
- Gallese, V. (2018) “The power of images: A view from the brain-body” Phenomenology and Mind 14
- Gallagher, S. (2017), "Enactivist interventions: Rethinking the Mind, Oxford: Oxford UP.
- Noe A. (2015), Strange Tools. Art and Human Nature, New York: Hill & Wang.
- Fingerhut, J. (2018) “Enactive Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics”, Phenomenology and Mind 14: 80-97.

The exam will consist of writing a ten-page essay on one of the four areas considered during the course or on one of the authors considered, after agreement with the teachers (robdre@unive.it and carlos.varasanchez@unive.it).
The test will assess whether the students have been able to analyze and deepen the field of investigation of the essay, if they know how to orient themselves effectively in the literature, if they can clearly report the theses of the authors considered and if they are able to formulate interpretative thesis on their own, supporting them with appropriate arguments and communicating them with critical awareness and independent judgment.

Frontal lectures, also with the aid of PowerPoint as well as using web resources, seminar readings and discussion of the texts. Co-teaching with Dr Carlos Vara Sanchez, who will deliver the lessons on neuroaesthetics and enactivist aesthetics.

Italian

Students who cannot attend the course are requested to contact the professor (robdre@unive.it) as well as Dr Carlos Vara Sanchez (carlos.varasanchez@unive.it).

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development