AESTHETIC I

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that studies the kind of experience we have when we find something beautiful, sublime, tragic, comic, and so on (the extension of the realm of aesthetic experience is itself a matter of discussion). Aesthetics also studies the objects of those experiences: artworks figure prominently among them, which is why philosophers often talk of ‘aesthetics and philosophy of art’. This course shall introduce students to key issues in aesthetics and philosophy of art, with reference to contemporary philosophical debate within the analytic tradition.
Students enrolled to the bachelor’s degree program in Philosophy shall appreciate the course’s offering of an overview of questions in value theory, metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of mind – all arising from the realm of aesthetics and the arts.
Students enrolled to the bachelor’s degree program in Conservation and Management of Cultural Heritage shall appreciate the course’s offering of theoretical tools for discussing the values, contents, salient properties and power to engage the imagination exhibited by artworks, as well as by certain artifacts and natural objects.
All students shall train their analysis skills, by learning how to reconstruct the arguments put forward in philosophical texts, and shall improve their critical thinking, by learning how to assess those arguments and apply them to relevant cases.

Students who shall successfully complete the course shall gain knowledge about central questions in aesthetics and philosophy of art and key contemporary proposals in this field of research.
They shall improve their argumentative skills and strengthen their power of logical thinking by learning how to identify and assess the main arguments put forward in contemporary philosophical texts, and how to apply philosophical arguments to the analysis of case-studies.
Furthermore, students shall strengthen their communication skills by training in how to write a short paper or handout where a philosophical thesis is put forward, how to defend it through oral discussion, and how to illustrate a variety of philosophical views through oral discussion.

The course has no specific prerequisites. An interest in artistic practices as well as in rigorous thinking is desirable.

The course shall present four key questions in aesthetics and philosophy of art:

1) What is aesthetics?
2) What is art?
3) How does art work?
4) Which values do we attribute to aesthetic objects and artworks?

To begin with, we shall consider some contemporary views on aesthetic experience and its objects, looking deeper into Frank Sibley’s view on aesthetic concepts.
Then, we shall discuss whether art can be defined, and we shall ponder a recent proposal on the ontology of art put forward by Peter Lamarque.
Then, we shall look at the mechanisms of fiction, representation, exemplification and expression, and at the role they play in artworks. Moreover, we shall discuss a proposal concerning the interpretation of artworks defended by Jerrold Levinson.
Finally, with reference to another text by Levinson, we shall investigate how it is that we can attribute multiple values to artworks, focusing on aesthetic, moral, intellectual, experiential, and artistic value.

Students are required to study from the following texts:

1) Teacher’s lecture notes, which shall be uploaded on the course’s Moodle webpage;
2) Frank Sibley, “Concetti estetici”, in Estetica e filosofia analitica, a cura di Pietro Kobau, Giovanni Matteucci e Stefano Velotti, il Mulino, 2007, pp. 177-206 (original text: “Aesthetic Concepts”, The Philosophical Review, 68 (1959), pp. 421-450;
3) Peter Lamarque, “Opera e oggetto” (capitolo 3), in Peter Lamarque, Opera e oggetto: esplorazioni nella metafisica dell’arte, edizione italiana a cura di Lisa Giombini, Quodlibet 2019 (original text: Peter Lamarque, Work and Object: Explorations in the Metaphysics of Art, Oxford University Press 2010);
4) Jerrold Levinson, “Intention and Interpretation in Literature”, in Jerrold Levinson, The Pleasures of Aesthetics, Cornell University Press, 1996, pp. 175-213 (an Italian translation of the text shall be uploaded by the teacher on the course’s Moodle webpage);
5) Jerrold Levinson, “Piacere e valore nelle opere d’arte”, in Jerrold Levinson, Arte, critica e storia. Saggi di estetica analitica, traduzione di Filippo Focosi, Aesthetica Edizioni, 2011.

Oral and written exam.
Students are required to:
1) Orally discuss the texts included in the course’s mandatory reading list;
2) Write a 1000 words paper or handout, concerning a specific topic tackled during the course, and discuss it orally.

Lectures, discussions, and assignments, with a focus on textual analysis, argument reconstruction, discussion of case-studies, and peer-to-peer instruction.

All students should log into the course’s Moodle webpage and regularly check the documents that the teacher will upload on that page.

Students who cannot attend the lectures are warmly invited to contact the teacher by sending an email to: elisa.caldarola@unive.it

Accessibility, Disability and Inclusion
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 at your earliest convenience: inclusione@unive.it.
Website: www.unive.it/inclusione

written and oral