Philosophy & The Arts
“A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind.” |
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“Philosophy and the Arts” investigates what is prompted by a confrontation with and contemplation of the creative arts broadly construed: explorations into the nature of beauty, the meaning and use of art, and the capacity of the various arts to communicate philosophical ideas. By reflecting on such topics, we can hone our abilities to grapple in canonical and contemporary debates about art’s nature, function, and goals, and thereby better understand the arts as expressions of philosophy or wisdom, which can make one a better thinker, a better artist, enliven one’s art experience, and generally vitalize all of life’s experiences.
We will examine countless facets of the many collisions between philosophy and the arts. Study an incredibly diverse palate of canonical philosophers, contemporary scholars, eminent cultural critics, and artists ranging from the famous to infamous to obscure. Engage projects that exercise rigorous reading and hermeneutical interpretation, critical and creative writing, rigorous textual discussions and creative dialogical exploration of ideas, informal and formal presentations, and include experiential options from attending events to doing art. And, within all this diversity, our course will coalesce around three interwoven questions:
How do we Judge Art?
What is the Nature of Art?
What is the Power of {and Effects from} Art?
These questions will lead us into investigations of all forms of arts and crafts and to explorations including:
What does “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” really mean? * Is beauty universal? * Is art necessarily beautiful? * What is the sublime? * Is its appreciation emotional or rational? * Is all aesthetic judgment subjective? * Who can judge art? * By what criteria do we judge art as art? * Is all art good art? * Is art evaluated by its form or content, the artwork or its reception? * Are all arts equal? * Is craft essentially different from art? * What is the purpose of art? i Can something useful be art? * Should art be privately owned? * Is art’s essence imitation or originality? * Is art’s origin & source the artwork or artist? i Can artists be trained or only born? * Can an artist be a critic and a critic an artist? * Is skill as important as imagination? * What is artistic genius? * What is the power of art? * How does the psychology of art relate to its social impact? * Should we censor art? * Should we censor political or commercial uses of art? * Does art speak? * How ought we look at, read, listen to, learn from art? * Does art have to have a message? * Can art ever not have meaning?
“Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless,
but necessary all the same.
Pointless and yet necessary …”
—Günter Grass, Interview in New Statesman & Society, London, 22 June 1990.
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“… a work of art is the finest, deepest, most significant expression of a rare personality …”
–George Bellows, Answers to Five Questions
“Art”
Etymology: the Proto-Indo-European root ar-, “to fit together,” formed the Latin artem, “work of art, practical skill; a business, craft,” which, from the early 13th c., meant “skill as a result of learning or practice” with the Middle English connotation of “skill in scholarship and learning” that, by the 14th c., emphasized human as opposed to natural workmanship; in the 15th c., its meaning shifted to the “system of rules and traditions for performing certain actions,” with the 16th c. expanding this to the sense of “skill in cunning and trickery” we hear in forms like “artful” and “artless;” finally, by the 17th c., its meaning was tied to “skill in creative arts.”
Definitions:
Etymology: the Proto-Indo-European root ar-, “to fit together,” formed the Latin artem, “work of art, practical skill; a business, craft,” which, from the early 13th c., meant “skill as a result of learning or practice” with the Middle English connotation of “skill in scholarship and learning” that, by the 14th c., emphasized human as opposed to natural workmanship; in the 15th c., its meaning shifted to the “system of rules and traditions for performing certain actions,” with the 16th c. expanding this to the sense of “skill in cunning and trickery” we hear in forms like “artful” and “artless;” finally, by the 17th c., its meaning was tied to “skill in creative arts.”
Definitions:
- “Skill acquired by experience, study, or observation; a branch of learning; an occupation requiring knowledge or skill; the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; a skillful plan; decorative or illustrative elements in printed matter” (Merriam-Webster).
- “The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance; the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria” (Dictionary.com).
- “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power; works produced by human creative skill and imagination; creative activity resulting in the production of paintings, drawings, or sculpture” (Oxford English Dictionary).
“Art is either plagiarism or revolution” –Paul Gauguin
“Art is a kind of illness” –Giacomo Puccini
“Art is the signature of civilizations” –Jean Sibelius
“Art is meant to disturb. Science reassures” –Georges Braque
“Art is not a thing; it is a way” –Elbert Hubbard
Online Resources:
ASAGE: American Society for Aesthetic Graduate e-Journal: http://asage.org/index.php/ASAGE
Aristos: An Online Review of the Arts: http://www.aristos.org/
Contemporary Aesthetics (online journal): http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/journal.php
ASAGE: American Society for Aesthetic Graduate e-Journal: http://asage.org/index.php/ASAGE
Aristos: An Online Review of the Arts: http://www.aristos.org/
Contemporary Aesthetics (online journal): http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/journal.php
“My aim in painting has always been the most exact transcription possible
of my most intimate impressions of nature”
–Edward Hopper, Hopper catalogue, MoMA, 1933