Module PHL3045 for 2020/1
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
PHL3045: Aesthetics
This module descriptor refers to the 2020/1 academic year.
Module Aims
- You will learn about current debates in Aesthetics, and come to understand how these are related to topics from elsewhere in the discipline of Philosophy.
- You will learn to think critically about your own aesthetic tastes and judgements, and to articulate your philosophical conclusions with care and precision.
- You will develop your capacities for philosophical analysis and reasoning, by reading and researching contemporary literature on Aesthetics.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Explain and evaluate key philosophical problems surrounding topics in Aesthetics and existing responses to these problems, while developing your own critical perspective. 2. Explain in an informed and systematic way how problems in aesthetics are connected to issues in other philosophical domains, including ethics and metaphysics. 3. Devise and sustain rationally persuasive arguments using appropriate ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of the discipline. |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Critically analyze philosophical texts, both recent and historical, and examine their presuppositions and methods reflectively. 5. Consolidate philosophical concepts from other modules and begin to convey a sense of the unity of philosophy as a discipline. |
| Personal and Key Skills | 6. Illustrate and explain difficult ideas in writing and orally, while maintaining an honest and balanced perspective. 7. Analyse, critically engage with, and report accurately upon, existing written material while building a structured and cogent argument. 8. Work independently, within a limited time frame, and without access to external sources, to complete a specified task. |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Basic reading:
Lamarque, P. & Olsen, S.H. (2004) Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition, Blackwell.
Robinson, J. (1994), ‘The Expression and Arousal of Emotion in Music’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 52(1).
Cohen, T. (1993), ‘High and Low Thinking about High and Low Art’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 51(2).
Leddy, T. (2015), ‘Experience and Awe: An Expansive Approach to Everyday Aesthetics’, Contemporary Aesthetics 13.
Cochrane, T. (2012), ‘The Emotional Experience of the Sublime’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 42(2).
Kieran, M. (2010), ‘The Vice of Snobbery: Aesthetic Knowledge, Justification, and Virtue in Art Appreciation’, Philosophical Quarterly, 60(239).
Gaut, B. (2002), ‘Cinematic Art’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 60(4).
