PHIL 452 - Aesthetics

(3 units) CO12

Topics may include an examination of an important historical or contemporary text in aesthetics, or a specific art form (e.g., painting), or genre (e.g., the tragic).

Prerequisite(s): 6 credits of philosophy.

Grading Basis: Graded
Units of Lecture: 3
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. state a thesis about a problem in philosophical aesthetics, and provide evidence and philosophical argument (including replies to counter-arguments) in its defense.
2. explain and interpret the ideas associated with aesthetic theories in contemporary philosophical literature.
3. distinguish better and worse reasoning, and recognize relevant logical relationships and patterns of inference (in contemporary aesthetic theories).
4. explain the concept of aesthetic value, and offer a reasoned account of how art (or other objects of aesthetic appreciation) may—or may not—have ethical value.
5. show what is at stake in abstract debates in philosophical aesthetics, and indicate how positions in these debates has implications for the practice of moral agents and, where relevant, other areas of philosophical inquiry.

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