The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics (original) (raw)
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Art Today and Philosophical Aesthetics
For those who have the fortune of being exposed to the swirling world of contemporary visual arts, with its global art fairs, gallery openings, and auction houses, the discovery of philosophical aesthetics and of the categories of art history might at times appear as the greatest misfortune. This is, obviously, a provocative statement, but a statement that, in its exaggerated tone, points to a real and tangible chasm between the tradition of philosophical aesthetics and the tumultuous, ever-morphing status of artistic production and fruition.
2022
Office Hours: By appointment Course Description As an introduction to the aesthetic theory, this course historically surveys the five phases of it: the reign of mimesis, the paradigm shift in aesthetics, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and the modern-postmodern controversy. These various approaches to the aesthetic objects or the works of art will not only allow us to discern the salient patterns of the development of the aesthetic theory in the history of philosophy, but also impel us to single out the fundamental concepts of the aesthetic experience, such as beautiful, good, truth, representation, sublime, taste, perception, reception, reproduction, aura, simulacra, sign, affect, and so on. Thus, in order to follow both historical and conceptual trails of the aesthetic theory, we will face the music of a burdensome journey: from Plato's banishment of poets to the modern/postmodern attempts of an overcoming of Platonism, another extensive narrative of philosophy will be read with a focus on concepts and questioned with a critical approach. Although we will inevitably exclude some major figures (such as Aristotle, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Croce, Danto, and many others), they will nevertheless remain parergal to our conversations. Class Sessions • Interpretation of A Painting: Each session will begin with a phenomenological
Call for articles and essays Aesthetic Investigations
Calls for Articles (7500 words max., reviewed anonymously) We welcome articles addressing questions about art and aesthetics. We particularly solicit contributions in upcoming issues of Aesthetic Investigations on the following themes. Volume III (issue 1) Is there truth in fiction? (guest editor: Leen Verheyen, working with Arthur Cools) Can fiction be dismissed as an irrelevant flight from reality, or does it contain a grain of truth? How to assess this? Deadline for submissions: April 30 2018 INTRODUCING THE JOURNAL Aesthetic Investigations is an international journal for aesthetics, appearing twice a year. It is Open Access and anonymously reviewed. Aesthetic Investigations is published on behalf of the Dutch Association of Aesthetics (the Nederlands Genootschap voor Esthetica, est. 1997). Our interest is with the present. The history of aesthetics is discussed for its pertinence for contemporary debates. The aim of Aesthetic Investigations is to develop contemporary debates in philosophical aesthetics, and initiate new ones—and to do this from any viable angle. We adhere to the view that communication is possible at all levels, but do not assume that all philosophers speak the same language. We start by letting all philosophies speak in their own tongue, allowing philosophers to clarify their points using their own philosophical jargon. The clarification, it is our hope, is what will bring about the conversation. Let us all be clear — in our own terms. The journal encourages philosophical discussion amongst philosophers, humanities researchers and critics, of all the arts; as well as those interested in the aesthetics of the everyday. We wel- come discussion about the norms of success and correctness at stake in the various disciplines; about the phenomenology of the appreciative experience of all the art forms, and of particular exemplary works and situations. Aesthetic Investigations also encourages debates about philosophical issues regarding one or the other of the art forms; the impact of works of art on their public, political, ethical, cultural context, and of these contexts on the works; the ontology of art, and their definition, and so on.