SH8 Philosophy of Art
This course is an introduction to philosophical aesthetics. What is Art? How, if at all, can Art be defined? What kinds of things are Artworks? What is beauty? What is aesthetic experience? What is artistic and especially pictorial representation or depiction? What is expression, and how important is it? Historical and contemporary sources will be used to investigate these questions
Course lecturer: Dr Gary Kemp
Semester: 1
Lecture hour & venue: See Honours timetable
Teaching resources for this course will be made available on the Philosophy Moodle site.
Intended learning outcomes:
At the end of this course, students should be able to:
- understand, state and critically engage with the theories of aesthetic judgement of Hume and Kant;
- understand, state and critically engage with one or more modern theories of pictorial representation;
- understand, state and critically engage with one or more theory of expression and its role in art;
- understand, state and critically engage with some theories of the nature of criticism and the importance for understanding the work of art of assessing the artist's intention;
- understand, state and critically engage with the question 'What is art?' and modern responses to it.