University of St Andrews
Berys Gaut
Credits: 30.0 Semester: 1
Availability: 2006-2007
Anti-requisite: PY4812
Description: This module examines some of the fundamental issues in contemporary aesthetics. Topics covered include the definition of art, the nature of the aesthetic, whether aesthetic properties are real, different theories of interpretation, what it is for a work of art to express something, the paradox of fiction, the value of art, the relation of art to ethics and the nature of creativity.
Class Hours: Lectures Tuesdays and Fridays at 11.00 in Seminar Room 104, Philosophy Departments. Seminar times to be arranged. Note that in week 8 there will be no Friday lecture (17 November) and no seminar.
Teaching: Two lectures and one seminar per week.
Assessment: Continuous assessment = 50%, 3 hour exam = 50%.
TOPICS AND READING
"SL" designates books in the Short Loan Collection in the Main Library.
* = readings for weekly seminars.
General: the following books are useful anthologies on aesthetics. They include many articles, in addition to those mentioned below, relevant to the topics we will discuss. Neill and Ridley can also be bought in the University bookshop:
Alex Neill and Aaron Ridley (eds.), The Philosophy of Art. (PA) (SL).
Berys Gaut and Dominic M. Lopes (eds.), Routledge Companion to Aesthetics, 2nd ed. (RCA) (SL).
Matthew Kieran (ed.), Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. (CDAPA) (SL).
Jerrold Levinson (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics. (OHA) (SL).
1. Definition of art
Stephen Davies, "Definitions of Art" (RCA).
Morris Weitz, "The Role of Theory in Aesthetics" (PA) and in Joseph Margolis (ed.), Philosophy Looks at the Arts, 3rd. ed. (SL).
Berys Gaut, "'Art' as a Cluster Concept" in Noël Carroll (ed.), Theories of Art Today (SL).
Monroe Beardsley, "Redefining Art" in Michael Wreen and Donald Callen (eds.), The Aesthetic Point of View.
George Dickie, "The New Institutional Theory of Art" in George Dickie, Richard Sclafani and Ronald Roblin (eds), Aesthetics: A Critical Anthology, 2nd ed. (SL); and PA.
Jerrold Levinson, "Defining Art Historically", British Journal of Aesthetics, 1979; and PA.
*Noël Carroll, "Art, Practice, and Narrative", The Monist, 71, 1988.
*Greg Currie, "Aliens, Too", Analysis, 53 (April 1993).
2. Aesthetic attitude, experience and aesthetic qualities
Monroe Beardsley, "The Aesthetic Point of View" in Margolis (SL).
Monroe Beardsley, "Aesthetic Experience" in Wreen and Callen.
Jerome Stolnitz, "The Aesthetic Attitude" in Dickie, Sclafani & Roblin (SL).
Roger Scruton, Art and Imagination, chs. 9 & 10 (SL).
George Dickie, "The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude" in Margolis (SL); and Dickie, Sclafani & Roblin (SL).
*Frank Sibley, "Aesthetic Concepts" (PA), also in Margolis (SL); Philosophical Review, 1959.
Alan Goldman, "Aesthetic Qualities and Aesthetic Value", Journal of Philosophy, January 1990.
Gary Iseminger, "The Aesthetic State of Mind" (CDAPA).
3. Aesthetic realism and metaphors
Nick Zangwill, "Aesthetic Realism I" (OHA).
David Hume, "Of the Standard of Taste" (PA) also in Dickie, Sclafani & Roblin (SL).
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Aesthetic Judgement, sections 6-9, 30-40 (SL); (partly in PA).
Frank Sibley, "Objectivity and Aesthetics", Proc. Arist. Soc., Suppl. Vol., 1968.
*Roger Scruton, "Understanding Music" in his The Aesthetic Understanding.
Nicholas Zangwill, "Metaphor and Realism in Aesthetics", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 49 (1), 1991.
Berys Gaut, "Metaphor and the Understanding of Art", Proc. Arist. Soc., 1997.
Philip Pettit, "The Possibility of Aesthetic Realism" in Schaper (ed.), Pleasure, Preference and Value.
Alan Goldman, "Realism about Aesthetic Properties", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 51, 1993.
Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Contingencies of Value, chapters 1 & 3 (SL).
4. Interpretation and intention
Robert Stecker, "Interpretation" (RCA).
Paisley Livingston, "Intention in Art" (OHA).
E. D. Hirsch, "Objective Interpretation" appendix to his Validity in Interpretation.
Richard Wollheim, Painting as an Art, pp. 17-45 (SL).
Jerrold Levinson, "Intention and Interpretation in Literature", especially pp. 175-89 and 207-13, in his The Pleasures of Aesthetics.
Alexander Nehamas, "The Postulated Author: Critical Monism as a Regulative Ideal", Critical Inquiry, 8, 1981.
Robert Stecker, "Hypothetical Intentions and Implied Authors" in his Artworks, ch. 10.
Monroe Beardsley, "Intention and Interpretation: A Fallacy Revisited" in Wreen and Callen.
*Kendall Walton, "Categories of Art" (PA) also in Margolis (SL); Dickie, Sclafani and Roblin (SL).
Berys Gaut, "Interpreting the Arts: The Patchwork Theory", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Fall 1993.
5. Fiction and representation
Monroe Beardsley, "Fiction as Representation", Synthese, 46, 1981.
Nicholas Wolterstorff, "Response to Beardsley on 'Fiction as Representation'", Synthese, 46, 1981.
John Searle, "The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse" in his Expression and Meaning.
Nicholas Wolterstorff, "Two Approaches to Representation — And Then a Third" in Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 16 (1991).
Kendall Walton, Mimesis as Make-Believe, pp. 11-43, 51-4 and 70-95. (SL)
Gregory Currie, The Nature of Fiction, ch. 1.
*Peter Lamarque and Stein Olsen, Truth, Fiction and Literature, ch. 2. (SL). (See also chs. 3 & 4.)
6. Expression of emotion
Richard Wollheim, Painting as an Art, pp. 80-89 (SL).
Roger Scruton, Art and Imagination, ch. 15 (see also chs. 6 and 14) (SL)
Derek Matravers, "Art and the Feelings and Emotions", British Journal of Aesthetics, 1991.
Alan Tormey, "Art and Expression: a Critique" in Margolis (SL).
Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art, ch. 2 (SL).
*Guy Sircello, "Expressive Properties of Art" (PA) and in Margolis (SL).
Bruce Vermazen, "Expression as Expression", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 67, 1986.
7. The paradox of fiction: fiction and genuine emotions
Colin Radford, "How can we be moved by the fate of Anna Karenina?", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Suppl. Vol., 49, 1995.
Alex Neill, "Fiction and the Emotions", American Philosophical Quarterly, 30, 1993.
Kendall Walton, Mimesis as Make-Believe, pp. 195-204, 241-9. (SL)
*Kendall Walton, "Spelunking, Simulation, and Slime" in Hjort and Laver (eds.), Emotion and the Arts.
Richard Moran, "The Expression of Imagination in Feeling", Philosophical Review, 1994.
Noël Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror, pp. 59-88.
Richard Joyce, "Rational Fear of Monsters", British Journal of Aesthetics, 40, 2000, pp. 209-24.
Berys Gaut, "Reasons, Emotions and Fictions" in Kieran and Lopes (eds.), Imagination, Philosophy and the Arts.
8. Values of art: pleasure and cognitive values
Matthew Kieran, "Value of Art" (RCA).
Jerrold Levinson, "Pleasure and the Value of Works of Art", British Journal of Aesthetics, 32, 1992.
Gordon Graham, "Art, Pleasure, and Play", Journal of Value Inquiry, 28, 1994.
Alan Goldman, "The Value of Music", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 50 (1), 1992.
R. G. Collingwood, Principles of Art, ch. 6.
R. W. Beardsmore, Art and Morality, ch. 5.
*David Novitz, Knowledge, Fiction and Imagination, ch 6.
Jerome Stolnitz, "On the Cognitive Triviality of Art", British Journal of Aesthetics, July 1992.
Peter Lamarque and Stein Olsen, Truth, Fiction and Literature, chs. 13 & 17 (SL).
Berys Gaut, "Art and Cognition" (CDAPA).
Peter Lamarque, "Cognitive Values in the Arts: Marking the Boundaries" (CDAPA).
9. Art and ethics
William Gass, "Goodness Knows Nothing of Beauty", Harper's Magazine, 1987.
Wayne Booth, The Company We Keep, chs 6 and 7.
Martha Nussbaum, "'Finely Aware and Richly Responsible': Literature and the Moral Imagination" in her Love's Knowledge.
*R. A. Sharpe, "Moral Tales", Philosophy, 1992.
Berys Gaut, "Art and Ethics" (RCA).
Berys Gaut, "The Ethical Criticism of Art" in Jerrold Levinson (ed.), Aesthetics and Ethics (SL).
Noël Carroll, "Art, Narrative and Moral Understanding" in Levinson, ibid (SL).
Lawrence Hyman, "Morality and Literature — The Necessary Conflict", British Journal of Aesthetics, 24,1984.
Dan Jacobson, "Ethical Criticism and the Vice of Moderation" (CDAPA) (SL).
Matthew Kieran, "Forbidden Knowledge: the Challenge of Immoralism" in Bermudez and Gardner (eds.), Art and Morality.
10. Artistic creativity
Kant, Critique of Judgement, sections 46-50 (SL).
Margaret Boden, "Creativity" (RCA).
David Novitz, "Creativity and Constraint", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 1999.
Frank Sibley, "Originality and Value", British Journal of Aesthetics, 25, 1985.
Bruce Vermazen, "The Aesthetic Value of Originality", Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 1991.
Vincent Tomas, "Creativity in Art", Philosophical Review, 1958.
Monroe Beardsley, "On the Creation of Art", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 23, 1965.
*John Hospers, "Artistic Creativity", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 43, 1984-5.
Jerrold Levinson, "Elster on Artistic Creativity" in Gaut and Livingston (eds.), The Creation of Art.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
Write an essay of 3,500 words on one assigned topic: topics will be given out at the first lecture.
Deadline: 4.00 pm Monday 20 November. Two copies of the essay should be put in the Essay Box. For regulations governing essay submission, see the Honours Handbook. Note in particular the penalties for late submission of essays.
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