PHIL 2029 - Beauty: Pleasures and Principles

This course introduces students to the central concepts and themes of philosophical aesthetics such as beauty, the sublime, disinterested pleasure, aesthetic judgment, aesthetic form, aesthetic ideas, the ugly, imagination and style. We will study the origin of these notions in a variety of historical/intellectual contexts through the writings of Plato, Hume, Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche. This will take up the first half of the course. The second half of the course will involve the application of these concepts to contemporary culture through the writings of more recent philosophers. We will assess the potency and relevance of these concepts and themes for understanding the way value and meaning are conveyed through popular art forms like television soap operas but also more challenging art works, including novels, visual art and film. The course will culminate in an analysis of the relation between the narrative of a film and its artistry. This will involve a study of film theory that draws upon research on perception and the emotions in order to understand the way films can be constructed to elicit complex emotions such as those associated with experiences of beauty and the sublime.