PL 345 - Sight and Insight: Topics in Aesthetics and Art History

(3.00 cr.)

Studying works of art inevitably brings up philosophical questions about the nature of art and the status of aesthetic judgments. Is art just about emotion and not reason? Is art basically subjective? Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Conversely, the philosophy of art must grapple with the acute particularity of artworks, and efforts to probe art in the realm of ideas are inescapably freighted by the objects themselves and the history of art. How is form related to meaning? What is modernism? What is the future of art? In short, art history and philosophy of art need each other, and students need both to fully pursue fundamental questions about the role of art in human life. This course brings abstract theorizing together with contextualized case studies, allowing students to develop nuanced perspectives on our modes of thinking about art and our cultural practices of making, exchanging, and experiencing artworks. Same course as AH 345 .

Prerequisite: PL 201 and one additional PL 200-level course.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall
Years Typically Offered: Annually