PY4325 Class, Status, and Aesthetics

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

TBC

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr C M Y Torregrossa

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Clotilde Torregrossa

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

Our aesthetic choices – the music we like, the films we recommend to our friends, the clothes we wear – can position us in relation to others. As such, class and status structures shape our aesthetic preferences, but such structures might also be challenged or reinforced by our interactions with various aesthetic objects. This module will introduce these topics through intersecting perspectives from analytic aesthetics, political philosophy, continental philosophy, critical theory, and feminist thought. Topics to be covered may include: how should we understand the distinction between art and craft, or high art and low art? What are the political and ethical implications of our aesthetic choices and judgements? Who gets to produce aesthetic and cultural artefacts, and why? What are the political and ethical implications of the preservation and curation of aesthetic and cultural artefacts? What is cultural and aesthetic appropriation? Can art contribute to social justice?

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST TAKE PY1012

Assessment pattern

Coursework - 100%

Re-assessment

Coursework - 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

1 lecture (X11 weeks), 1 seminar (11X Weeks)

Scheduled learning hours

44

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

259

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Engage in a theoretically informed way with different philosophical approaches to aesthetics and social philosophy.
  • Produce philosophical analysis and evaluation of related arguments in other disciplines.
  • Formulate and justify their own philosophical views about the social consequences of our aesthetic choices.
  • Critically reflect on their own aesthetic engagement with the world and their political and ethical effects on social structures.