Time Schedule:
Ronald M Moore
PHIL 446
Seattle Campus
Historical development of aesthetics, emphasizing such major figures as Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Hegel, and Goodman.
Class description
This course will examine the evolution of philosophical aesthetics in Western culture, beginning with Plato and ending with the art-for-art’s sake movement (Clive Bell) at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Special emphasis will be placed on connections between theories of art and theories of wider aesthetic value, on relations between aesthetic value and other high social values (including ethics), and on emerging views of aesthetic experience. Readings will be from a recent collection of original sources (in translation), Aesthetics: Classic Readings from the Western Tradition (1996) edited by Dabney Townsend. Students may complete the course either by writing a term paper (approximately 15 pages in length) or by taking midterm and final examinations. No prerequisites. Meets VLPA or I&S requirement. Optional “W” course. No freshmen.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
