Phil

Helpful Stuff

The instructor’s web page for this course will include sample exams, lists of important terms, and outlines of classes. All quizzes will also be preserved on that page for review purposes. Access the Phil/FA 310 page through the UTM page (click on faculty staff, then on faculty web pages) or by using www.utm.edu/~nlillega/lillegard.htm. and clicking on relevant link.

Class Conduct, Instructor's Role, etc. What I Expect of Students.

1.Treat each other with respect. 2.Treat the instructor with respect. 3.Do not talk unless called on.

4. Do not leave the room without permission except in extreme emergency. 5. Be on time.

6. Be eager to learn. The best indication of progress is engagement with the issues and ideas we deal with.

7. Do not be afraid to say "I don't understand." 8. Expect the same of me as I expect of you. (Except for #3, and #4, of course. You will see that I follow #7 a lot.)

NB. Any kind of cheating is a serious offense and will be dealt with accordingly. It also ought to be beneath the dignity of each and every student.

Classes will consist of a mix of lecture, discussion, possible occasional reports, and viewing of videos,

listening to recordings, etc. Students are expected to treat other students in a polite fashion, even though they should

feel free to express disagreement on ANY topic or ANY claim that is advanced by anyone, including the instructor.

At the same time, each student must attempt to exercise responsibility by keeping discussion focused on the subject at

hand and by listening carefully to the responses of the instructor and other participants.

Particular value is placed on argument, as opposed to mere expression of opinion. Say what you believe, but be prepared to say why. The instructor will attempt to clarify difficult concepts and passages in the text, and provide relevant examples. Students are encouraged to provide their own examples. If there is an art work (painting, pot, poem etc.) by yourself or someone else that you want to discuss, bring it or describe it and some class time will be spent on it, provided there is some connection to the readings.

Students should feel free to interrupt with questions or comments, even though on occasion answers may be postponed for the sake of coherence. The instructor is pledged to careful consideration of any view, including those which he finds unsupportable, and to critical thinking with any student who values thoughtful discussion. Students who feel a need for individual help should feel free to ask..

NOTE: "Any student eligible for and requesting academic accommodations due to a disability is requested to provide a letter of accommodation from P.A.C.E. or Student Academic Support Center within the first two weeks of the semester."

COURSE OUTLINE: (Approximate. Content and time periods may vary slightly.)

Week 1 (1/18) Overview of course. Kinds of “arts.” The notion of “fine art.” Defining art. Art criticism. Read Battin, 1-26. Be familiar with the 24 cases described.

Week 2 (1/24) Week I continued. Defining “art” and theories of art. Eaton, ch. 1.

Week 3 (1/31) Week II continued. Creativity. Selections from Battin. Eaton, ch. 2.

Week 4 (2/7)Week 3 continued. Eaton ch. 3. Viewers, taste, emotion etc. Selections from Battin ch. 2

Week 5 (2/14) Eaton ch. 4. Languages of art.

Week 6 (2/21) Eaton ch. 5. Art objects. Battin selections.

Week 7 (2/28) MIDTERM EXAM Wed. Mar. 2 Paper due. Interpretation and criticism. Eaton ch. 6. Selections from Battin ch. 3,4, 6.

Week 8 (3/7) Week 7 cont. Battin ch. 6 Forgeries, etc.

Week 9 (3/14 – 18 SPRING BREAK)

Week 10 (3/21) Week 8 continued. The value of Art. Eaton ch. 7. Selections from Battin ch. 5.

Week 11 (3/28) Meaning and truth in Literature. Handouts. Art, public policy, Eaton ch. 7

Week 12 (4/4) Art, ethics. Eaton ch. 7. Handouts. .

Week 13 (4/11) The end (or future) of the arts. Handouts.

Week 14 (4/18) . Discussions of papers, themes.

Week 15 (4/25) “ “

Week 16. Classes end May 2. FINAL EXAMS, MAY 5-11.

Article for week 13, 14. http://www.eurozine.com/article/2003_02_25_lillegard_en.html

Paper Topics

Individual writers/works:

Plato – Republic, Ion.

Aristotle – Poetics 1-15.

Mo Tzu, Hsun Tzu (On music)

Plotinus – Enneads I.6

Hume – Of the Standard of Taste

Kant – Critique of Aesthetic Judgement

Friedrich Schiller, Letters 26-27

Hegel – Intro. to Aesthetics 1-3.

Schopenhauer, World as Will and Representation

Tolstoy – On Art.

Bell – The Aesthetic hypothesis.

Coomoraswamy- The Dance of Siva

Dewey – Art as Experience

Heidegger – The Origin of the Work of Art

Collingwood – Principles of Art

Cavell – The Claim of Reason and Must We Mean What we Say (various essays).

Danto – The Philosophical Disenfranchisment of Art.

Wollheim – Art and its Objects

Particular topics:

Expression in __________ (music, painting etc.)

Censorship of the Arts

Formalism

Institutional Theories

Fiction and truth.

Meaning and Intention in Literature

Tragedy and Ethical Criticism of Art

Application of selected aesthetic theories to __________ (Drama, Painting, Film etc.)

Popular Art

Art vs. Entertainment

The Aesthetics of Nature

The Historical Nature of the Arts.

Art, Propaganda, Politics.

Quizz Guides, Phil. 310

QG 1

Read Answer

Battin, 1-26 Questions 1 - 21 below

1. What does case 4 add to case 1 and 2 and 3, if anything?

2. What does 5 add to 1,2,3, 4, if anything?

3. What does 6 etc.

4. What does 7

5. 8

6 9

7 10

8 11

9 12

10 13

11 14

12 15

13 16

14 17

15 18

16 19

17 20

18 21

19 22

20 23

21 24

QG 2. Read Eaton, 1-13

1. What are the four general types of aesthetic theory?

2. Give some reasons for thinking aesthetic theories are not even possible.

QG #3

Read Answer

Eaton p.14-31. 1 - below

1. Assuming that something is a work of art only if someone works on it in some way, be prepared to illustrate each of the following views about what kind of work is required to produce an artwork, as opposed to simply a (non-artistic) artifact:

a. art works result from the particular unique personalities of artists

b. art works result from a creative and original activity, where what makes an activity creative is either that it

i. consists in something more than following rules to produce an envisaged end

ii. consists in paying attention to features of things which have “artistic potential.”

c. art works result from carrying out an artistic “intention” (particular kinds of intention make certain things works of art)

d. art works result from (successful) attempts to express something (like an emotion).

2. Give criticisms of each of a-d above, as found in Eaton.

3. How does Aristotle respond to the claim that the arts are “irrational?”

4. Be prepared to illustrate and critique each of the following views on art as expression of an emotion (E): in a work of art

a. the artist expresses his/her own E in the work

b. the work arouses an E in the “viewer”

c. a and b combined: the artist expresses an E and the same E is aroused in the “viewer” (Tolstoy-type view of art as “communication”)

d. the work “depicts” an E

e. the work has in itself the properties or traits of people who feel E (Langer)

f. the work “treats something in a way that demonstrates” E (Sircello)

5. Compare and contrast Croce’s and Dewey’s views on art as an expression of the artist’s “idea.”

QG 4

Read

Eaton, p. 34-52

Battin, p. 28-58

1. Eaton suggests that there are three sets of criteria that might be used to sort people who are having an “aesthetic experience.” What are they?

2. Taste on the Hume/Sibley view includes

a. special sensitivity to properties objectively present in a work

b. the idea that the perceptual faculties employed by a person with taste are different from ordinary perceptual faculties.

c. the judgements of people with taste will converge

What are some criticisms of a, b and c?

3. Are viewer emotional responses to works of art

a. real ordinary? (does the viewer feel real sadness, for example)

b. not real but special aesthetic? (Burke’s “delight”, or, metaresponse)

c. ordinary but in a non-ordinary way? (in control etc.)

Discuss each of a-c pro and con.

4. What is the problem of “negative emotions”?

5. What are some problems with the idea that the “aesthetic attitude” is essentially “non-practical” or involves “distancing?”

6. Explain and illustrate the Sibley/Hungerford view that non-aesthetic properties never entail any aesthetic properties (or, aesthetic properties are never “condition governed.” Mention the “looks/is not really” test)

7. Give some criticisms of the Sibley/Hungerford view.

8. According to Dickie, the aesthetic attitude is a myth: the jealous husband and the lighting technician are not attending in a different way, they are attending to different ____________.

Mention some possibilities.

QG 5

Read (carefully!!) Eaton, 53-74

Think about these examples: Hobo signs, a musical phrase (Handel), Bach’s Nun kom der Heiden Heiland, Lover’s kiss, Jan Steen’s painting, Battin 3.13, 3.15, a poem (cf. Battin, 2.16), Dǖrer’s Melencolia I.

Ask these questions about these examples, and write down your answers:

1.Do they refer to, or contain parts that refer to, something? If so HOW is the reference achieved?

2. Do they state something? If so, HOW?

In answering 1 and 2, take account of the fact that referring and stating are usually done through language, and that actual verbal language is completely missing from most of these examples.

When you have answered 1 and 2 as FULLY as you can, note

(a)all the similarities or identities between the different cases, and

(b) all the differences.

Remember that these answers require reference to certain fundamental contrasts, such as that between conventional and the natural, between reference and resemblance, between iconic and non-iconic signs. Also keep in mind that these contrasts are not always sharp.

----------------------------------------------------

QG 6.

Study Eaton 76-101.

QG 7

Eaton, 104- 123. Battin, 60-102

QG 8.

Eaton, 125-147 Battin, 148-178

Web article.

Qz 1.

T or F

1. Something might seem to count as a work of art because it is displayed in a certain way.

2. One question that arises in connection with “sound sculpture” is this: are there genres of art that are constrained by the “materials” used?

Q 2.

1. Artist centered theories of art could include expression theories.

2. Weitz denies that it is possible to define (give necc and suff conditions for)the concept ‘work of art’ because

a. it is an “open concept”

b. there are no resemblances at all between some art works and others

c. there are at best family resemblances between some art works and others

d. a and c.

Q. 3.

1. According to Sircello, a painting could express a love of animals in the sense that the artist painted the animals “lovingly.”

2. If a work of art expresses sadness in the sense that it made the viewer feel sad, then it is mysterious why most people would want anything to do with it.

QZ 4

1. The idea of the “aesthetic attitude” typically includes the ideas that

(a) a special faculty is required for aesthetic perception

(b) aesthetic response is non-practical

(c) aesthetic responses are to conditioned-governed properties

(d) all of these.

2. Dickie claims that what makes a response aesthetic is what sorts of things the “viewer” responds to.

3. Twains two different responses to a sunrise on the river illustrate

(a) the difference between a practical and a non-practical response

(b) the difference between an aesthetic and a non-aesthetic response

(c) the difference between a response that shows taste and one that does not.

(d) a and b.

Qz. 5

1. An 18^th century garden, like that at Stowe, that leaves certain things out (like a statue of Queen Ann) and locates certain things lower than others, seems to make various statements, including negations.

2. Both Gombrich and Goodman emphasize the conventional aspect of artistic representation.

3. The more a sign looks like or in some way resembles what it refers to, the more “iconic” it is.

QZ VI

1. It is not implausible to think of Brancusi’s “lovers kiss” as referring to or representing a lover’s kiss

(a) by resembling in some slight way two lovers

(b) by “standing for” a lover’s kiss by the use of slightly iconic signs

(c) by evoking feelings relating to unity, difference, bridging, inner and outer divisions, and the like

(d) any or all of these.

2. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice could be said to

(a)communicate knowledge or understanding of human life and character

(b) be true to life

(c) be a good novel because it invites disinterested contemplation (the aesthetic attitude)

(d) all of these

(e) a and b.

QZ VII

1. Formalists argue that

(a) only properties directly observed in a art work are relevant to aesthetics

(b) the artists intention is relevant to aesthetics

(c) such traits as shading (in a painting), thematic development (music), or structure (novel) are aesthetically relevant.

(d) all of these

(e) a and c.

2. Clive Bell and Roger Frye are probably the best known formalist critics.

Qz. VIII

1. Marxist aesthetics is contextual in a very broad sense.

2. The context of a work of art could include

(a) the historical/political situation in which it was produced

(b) the prevailing artistic traditions at the time of its production

(c) the personal idiosyncracies of the artist

(d)all of these

(e) none of these.

QZ IX

1. Contextualists hold the view that all that matters in a work of art are its intrinsic properties.

2. According to the institutional theory of art, an object, X, becomes an art work

(a) when the artist produces X

(b) when art institutions confer on X the status ‘art work’

(c) when enough people see that in fact the work is worthy of appreciation

(d) none of these.

Qz 10.

1. Everyone would agree that since James says that The Turn of the Screw is just a ghost story, that therefore the best interpretation is one that treats it as a Ghost story.

2. There is a clear difference between interpreting a work of art and evaluating it.

Qz 11

1. If someone interprets ‘dark satanic mills’ in Blake’s Preface to Milton to refer to sooty industrial factories, they

(a) have not taken into account the author’s intentions

(b) have taken into account the historical circumstances of the poem’s composition

(c) have obviously made the poem less enjoyable

(d) all of these.

2. Giving reasons for the belief that a work of art is a good work is not like giving reasons for believing that a breakfast is nutritious, or for believing that it is not a good idea to go 80 mph in a 30 mph zone.

QZ 11(2)

1. The case of Virgil’s and Mendelssohn’s death bed wishes respecting their masterpieces illustrates the conflict between the value placed on art works and other values.

2. Tolstoy argued that the only good art works were

a. works that had economic value

b. works that appealed to people with taste

c. works that had intrinsically pleasing properties

d. all of these.

e. none of these.

3. Aesthetic value (the value of the arts) could, on some views, be

a. a function of moral values

b. in competition with economic values

c. not in competition with any other values

d. all of these

e. none of these.

QZ 12

1. The 18^th century revisions of King Lear illustrate

a. a conflict between aesthetic and economic values

b. how some people want art works to serve moral didacticism

c. how questions of authorship can never be settled

d. all of these.

2. The belief that “earthworks” should not be subject to the requirements of environmental protection suggests that social values and aesthetic values can conflict.

3. It is clear that religious subject matter in an art work will make it a work of religious art.

Class Outlines Phil/FA 310 Aesthetics

Week I.

1. Questions

A.What sorts of things (actions etc.) count as works of art? Or, What is the “definition” of ‘art?’ Examples:

B. Should works of art express something? Like what? Examples:

C. Is there some right way to “interpret” works of art? Examples:

1. q. What is the problem in (A)?

Answ. Deciding what features of a thing make it a work of art.

a. intention?

b. circumstances?

2. q. What is the problem in (B)?

Answ. Same as 1?

3. Any additional feature for (C)?

WEEK II

1. Organizing the intuitions:

Should we focus on

I.1 The Artist I.2The Object

(intention, (Beauty, formal

Expression etc.) properties, etc.)

I.3The Viewer I.4The Setting

(“aesthetic” (Institutions,

Experience) practices)

A. aesthetic theories tend to focus on one of these. E.g. it is necessary and sufficient for x’s being a work of art, that it be produced with an “artistic” intention.

i. perhaps there cannot be such theories. Perhaps ‘art’ or ‘aesthetic’ or ‘beauty’ are open concepts. Weitz and Wittgenstein.

ii. language games and games.

“what is common to all games?”

a. family resemblances.

2. The cognitive status of evaluative

claims about art;

A. is ‘that is a good painting’ like

‘that is a good knife’ or not?

WEEK III

1. (I,1)Focusing on the artist:

A. focus on the artists inner states and the EXPRESSION of those states.

B. art works result from the particular unique personalities of artists

C. art works result from a creative and original activity, where what makes an activity creative is either that it

i. consists in something more than following rules to produce an envisaged end

ii. consists in paying attention to features of things which have “artistic potential.”

D. art works result from carrying out an artistic “intention” (particular kinds of intention make certain things works of art)

E. art works result from (successful) attempts to express something (like an emotion).

2. Exploration of E. Art as expression of an emotion (E):

in a work of art

A. the artist expresses his/her own E in the work

B. the work arouses an E in the “viewer”

C. a and b combined: the artist expresses an E and the same E is aroused in the “viewer” (Tolstoy-type view of art as “communication”)

D. the work “depicts” an E

E. the work has in itself the properties or traits of people who feel E (Langer)

F. the work “treats something in a way that demonstrates” E (Sircello)

3. Croce’s and Dewey’s views on art as an expression of the artist’s “idea.”

Week IV

1. Eaton on three sets of criteria that might be used to sort people who are having an “aesthetic experience.”

ii.

iii.

2. Exploration of (1,i). The idea of Taste The Hume/Sibley view of taste includes

A. special sensitivity to properties objectively present in a work

Problems:

B. the idea that the perceptual faculties employed by a person with taste are different from ordinary perceptual faculties.

Problems:

C. the judgments of people with taste will converge

Problems:

3. (Exploration of 1.ii)Viewer emotional responses to works of art. How should we describe those responses?

A. They consist of real ordinary emotions? (does the viewer feel real sadness, for example)

Problems:

B. not real but special aesthetic? (Burke’s “delight”, or, metaresponses) (This seems to fit with 1.i)

Problems:

C. ordinary (like ‘sad’) but in a non-ordinary way? (in control etc.)

Problems:

D. The problem of “negative emotions” Examples:

4. Exploring another approach to 1.i.

A.The “aesthetic attitude” : essentially “non-practical” or involves “distancing.”

i. examples: from Twain, Bullough, (caught in a fog).

Problems:

B. Aesthetic attitude and The Sibley/Hungerford view that non-aesthetic properties never entail any aesthetic properties (or, aesthetic properties are never “condition governed.” ‘It is red and gold’ (non-aesthetic properties) never entails ‘it is beautiful’ (aesthetic property).

i. the “looks/is not really” test.

Can sensibly say ‘it looks yellow but is not’ but cannot say ‘it looks beautiful but is not.’

Problems:

7. Exploring 1.iii. Rejection of aesthetic attitude theory. Dickie: the aesthetic attitude is a myth: the jealous husband and the lighting technician are not attending in a different way, they are attending to different _things___________. (he is referring to Bullough)

Mention some possibilities.

So, What things should we attend to in works of art? Which are important?

A. Beardsley – regional qualities, formal unity. Lists on p. 49

i. examples from Battin

WEEK V The Arts and (as) Language

1. Does “getting A” (A could be any sort of non-linguistic art work) require something like learning a language?

A. In a language, words (are used to) refer to things and sentences (are used to) say things. Examples:

ques. What would correspond to words (lexical items) in non-linguistic art?

i. elements that “refer”. cf. medieval iconlogicae

ii. more general cases of “elements” “standing for” something.

Ques. What would correspond to sentences? cases of something (a string of elements) “saying” something.

2. Exploration of idea of elements in art works referring to something.

Ques. How can x stand for y?

A. by representing it? More obvious examples from painting.

Less obvious ones from music, literature.

i. representing and imitating.

ii. imitating by resembling.

iii. differences between resembling and representing. x represents a horse. Does it resemble one? Two chairs resemble each other. Do they represent each other?

iv. cf. examples from Hobo language, Handel.

v. on the other hand, a stick drawing can “represent” X. Does it resemble it?

B. If representation does not work through resemblance, how does it work? Gombrich and Goodman; it works somewhat the way a regular language does. Art really is a lot like verbal language.

i. denoting by convention.

C. The ingredients of a language – signs, syntax, semantics.

a. Signs, semantics, and natural/non-natural, or conventional, relations. Cf. ‘dog’ and a picture of a dog. Road signs.

Now, how much knowledge of conventions do we need to see what the picture “represents?” How much to produce a representation?

i. ways to classify signs. Natural. Conventional.

Another way to classify signs – icon, index(indication), symbol. Or, iconic, iconlogical, iconographical. Is a road sign iconic?

i. degrees of iconicity.

B. syntax. How the signs (“lexical items”) are arranged makes a difference to “meaning.” Cf. a sentence, a musical phrase, Steen.

3. Gombrich – reference does not depend upon resemblance.

A. making and matching, schema and correction.

i. schema are learned from the present “tradition.” Like learning a vocabulary. Thus the arts are historically located.

ii. however the individual artists can “correct” or modify the schema.

iii. figures, shapes, are not chosen because they resemble x, but because they are good “substitutes” for x.

Even in painting, the “signs” are more like symbols, less like icons, then we usually recognize.

4. Goodman – goes even further than Gombrich in denying resemblance. Shapes in paintings are conventional denoters.

A. Seems obviously wrong. In painting SEEING plays a fundamental role. Not so with “reading” a text.

B. Goodman agrees that the “symbols” in painting are not “notational.” You don’t “read the painting” and then produce it, the way you read a score, or a poem, and then produce it (perhaps many times many ways).

i. in a poem, all the identifying features of it are in the printed or spoken poem itself. Likewise, for a piece of music, Goodman thinks.

ii. in a poem, etc. the features ar