Philosophy of Art (380-0-21)
Instructors
Rachel E Zuckert
8474912556
Kresge 3-425
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-425: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
Eighteenth-century Britain saw an explosion of interest in aesthetics: many thinkers leapt to investigate beauty and sublimity, imitation and emotion in art, artistic creativity, and so forth. A major reason for this interest was the cynical account of human nature, morals and politics promoted by Thomas Hobbes and Bernard de Mandeville: that human beings are solely motivated by self-interest, and that morals and politics are merely tools of social control, aimed to limit and redirect self-promoting human impulses. Many thinkers argued in response that human attractions to beauty and art were powerful counterexamples to that portrayal of human nature, showing that human beings can love objects and others for their own sakes, and in a way that calls them to social harmony, perhaps through eliciting sympathetic responsiveness. In this course, we will read and talk about central texts and issues in this discussion, moving from Mandeville's Fable of the Bees to several major responses to his cynical challenge in the British aesthetics tradition: Shaftesbury's high-minded view of beauty as rational order eliciting disinterested pleasure; Hutcheson's theory of humor as cognitive and morally corrective (not mockery or ridicule); Kames' view of art, including tragedy, as arousing sympathetic emotional responses; and Adam Smith's and Sophie de Grouchy's views of art, morality, and politics as grounded in sympathetic imagination. In addition to discussing their claims concerning the importance of art for understanding human nature and morality, we will discuss questions such as: does appreciation of art and beauty require education, or contribute to moral and political education, or both? How does representational art ("imitation") arouse sympathetic emotion or understanding of diverse others? How is taste (for beauty or art) influenced by wealth, social class, or national identity?
Learning Objectives
* to attain a grasp of central positions, arguments and debates in eighteenth-century British philosophy, concerning aesthetic value and its relation to moral and political values.
*to explore these theoretical claims, through applying them to selected works of art or objects of beauty
*to examine, expand upon, or criticize these claims, through critical discussion and writing that tests the reasoning made in support of them.
Evaluation Method
Final paper
Class Materials (Required)
A course reader will be available for purchase at Quartet.
Selections from: Sophie de Grouchy, Letters on Sympathy; Francis Hutcheson, "Reflections on Laughter"; Lord Kames (Henry Home), "Of Our Attachment to Objects of Distress" and Elements of Criticism; Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of), Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Morals; Adam Smith, "Of the Nature of Imitation which Takes Place in What are Called the Imitative Arts" and Theory of Moral Sentiments
Class Materials (Suggested)
If class participants wish to read more widely, around the selections, they may wish to purchase the following works: Anthony Ashley Cooper (Earl of Shaftesbury), Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, Liberty Fund 978-0-86597-294-0 Sophie de Grouchy, Letters on Sympath, trans. Sandrine Berges, Oxford 978-0-19-063709 Lord Kames (Henry Home), Elements of Criticism, Liberty Fund 0-86597-466-7 Bernard de Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, Liberty Fund ISBN 0-86597-073-4 Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, Liberty Fund, ISBN 978-0-86597-012-0
Class Notes
Final paper
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for Graduate Students.