AESTHETICS II

This course will help the student developing the ability to deepen the classics of philosophical aesthetics through investigations into secondary literature and the mapping of the philosophical debate, by acquiring an attentive attitude toward different interpretative lines. As a result of the course, the student will approach the authors and the classical aesthetic themes with a critical awareness of the debate they have generated, knowing how to orient within the debate, respecting the plurality of readings, as well as establishing a first critical personal approach to the considered topics and authors.

Knowledge and understanding: As a result of this course, students should acquire the conceptual tools for understanding some crucial aesthetic debates as well as for contextualizing main aesthetic issues and classical authors on their theoretical and historical background.
Applying knowledge and understanding: As a further goal, students should achieve the capacity to explore and delve into secondary literature, as well as reconstructing philosophical debates about a topic or an author.
Making judgments: The course is expected to provide some basic tools for a critical reconstruction of the different positions within aesthetics debates, based on a critical, although not reductive engagement with reference to alternative interpretations.
By the end of the course, students should be able to expose their analysis of the considered literature with clarity and convenient arguments both through oral presentations and by means of a short essay.

In order to take the exam of Aesthetic II students are requested to have passed the written examination in Aesthetics I with Professor Dreon.
The current syllabus is designed as a development of the program worked out in Aesthetics I by Professor Dreon.

This course is intended as a natural continuation and in-depth study of the authors and topics covered during the previous Aesthetics I course. It will move the focus from the reading of classics in aesthetic literature to their interpretation in the secondary and specialized bibliography.
First of all, we will return to the theme of the so-called "aesthetic culture", considering alternative interpretations to Gadamer's reading of it (Marcuse and Porter) and we will proceed by treating Kant's, Schiller's, Hegel's aesthetic approaches in details by reading and discussing some of the most interesting contemporary contributions on these authors (from Paul Gruyer to Dieter Henrich and Rachel Zuckert on Kant, from Heidegger and Pareyson on Schiller, from Gethman-Siefert to Pinkard and Pippin on Hegel).
In this way, the course is meant to offer a first training in specialized research, with student presentations, seminar readings, research on secondary literature and writing of a short essay.

In the course, we will refer to the following texts.
In order to write the essay on which they will be evaluated, students are requested to establish a selection of the texts indicated below with the teachers.

On the Historicity of the Concept of "Art" and Aesthetic Culture:

• Kristeller, P.O. (2006), Il sistema moderno delle arti, Firenze: Alinea.
• Marcuse, H. (1968), La dimensione estetica, in Eros e civiltà, Torino: Einaudi, pp.194-214.
• Porter, I.J. (2003), Why Art Has Never Been Autonomous, Arethusa, 43/2, pp.165-180.
• Shiner, L. (2010), L’invenzione dell’arte, Torino: Einaudi.
• Shiner, L. (2009), Continuity and Discontinuity in the Concept of Art, British Journal of Aesthetics, 49.


On Kant:

• Feloj S. (2018), Normatività e sapere estetico, Mimesis.
• Haskins C. (1989), Kant and the Autonomy of Art, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 47/1, pp.43-54.
• Henrich D. (1992), Kant’s Explanation of Aesthetic Judgment, in Aesthetic Judgment and the Moral Image of the World, Standford: Standford U.P., pp. 29-56.
• Guyer P. (1978), Desinterestedness and Desire in Kant’s Aesthetics, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 36/4, pp.449-460.
• Guyer P. (1994), Kant’s Conception of Fine Art, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 52/3, pp.275-285.
• Proulx J. (2011), Nature, Judgment and Art: Kant anf the Problem of Genius, Kant Studies on line, 31, pp.27-53.
• Zuckert R. (2006), The Purposiveness of Form: A Reading’s of Kant’s Aesthetics, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 44/4, pp.599-622.
• Zuckert R. (2002), A New Look at Kant’s Theory of Pleasure, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 3/2002, pp.239-252.

On Schiller:

• Ardovino Adriano, Il sensibile e il razionale. Schiller e la mediazione estetica Aesthetics Preprint, 2001
• Heidegger M. (2008), Introduzione all’estetica. Le Lettere sull’educazione estetica dell’uomo di Schiller, Roma: Carocci.
• Michielon, L. (2002), Il gioco delle facoltà in Schiller, Il Poligrafo.
• Pareyson Luigi, Etica ed estetica in Schiller, Milano, Mursia, 1983.
• Tomasi G. (2013), Schiller, Kant e l’oggettività della bellezza, in Siani-Tomasi (a cura di), Schiller lettore di Kant, Pisa: ETS Edizioni, pp.67-89.


On Hegel:

• Caramelli, E. (2015), Eredità del sensibile. La proposizione speculativa nella Fenomenologia dello spirito di Hegel, Il Mulino, Bologna.
Danto, A.C. (1998), The End of Art: A Phiosophical Defence, History and Theory.
• Gadamer H.G. (2002), Fine dell’arte?, in Scritti di estetica, Palermo: Aesthetica, pp. 41-55.
• Garelli G. (2014), L’estetica nella fenomenologia dello spirito, in Farina-Siani (a cura di), L’estetica di Hegel, Bologna: il Mulino, pp.49-66.
• Gethmann Siefert A.M. (2014), Nuove fonti e nuove interpretazioni nell’estetica di Hegel, in Farina-Siani (a cura di), L’estetica di Hegel, Bologna: il Mulino, pp.13-31.
• Pinkard T. (2007), Symbolic, Classic and Romantic Art, in Houlgate S. (a cura di), Hegel and the Arts, Evanston: Northern Illinois UP, pp.3-28.
• Pippin R. (2008), The Absence of Aesthetics in Hegel’s Aesthetics, Bieser F.C. (a cura di), The Cambridge Companion to Hegel and Nineteenth-Century Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, pp.394-418.

The exam consists in an oral presentation and a short essay.
Each student must present one of the articles or a book section to be chosen from those listed in the bibliography, possibly within the course or during his oral examination, in case the first option should not be possible. Students are also requested to write a short essay of 6/7 folders on one of the authors or topics covered by the lessons, relying on an agreement with the teacher. The essay should not comprehend the text that is the subject of one’s own oral presentation.

Direct reading of the texts and detailed analysis. Students’ presentations and discussions in class.

Italian

Students who cannot attend the course are requested to contact the teacher (robdre@unive.it).
Students are requested to subscribe to the Moodle space of the course as well as to regularly check materials and information they can find there.

Ca' Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

written and oral

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