AESTHETICS

As part of the Master Degree in Philosophical Sciences, the course of Aesthetics Sp. will allow students to engage with 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 issues 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.
- Pinotti A. (2008), "Neurostetica, estetica psicologica, estetica fenomenologica: le ragioni di un dialogo", Rivista di estetica, pp.147-168.
- 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:
- 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. (1992),The Core of Art: Making Special, in Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Come From an Why, Free Press
- 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. (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.
- Gallagher, S. (2021), Performance/Art: The Venetian Lectures, Milano: Mimesis International.
- Noe A. (2015), Strange Tools. Art and Human Nature, New York: Hill & Wang.

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. Students will present their essays during the oral examination.
For those students who cannot attend the course, an oral examination is requested on one of the other three fields of research explored in class.

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).
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