Aesthetics: Perception, Subjectivity, Embodiment
Instructor: Timothy R. Quigley

Olafur Eliasson, Reimagine (large version), 2002

Course Description

This course examines modern and contemporary theories of artistic value and aesthetic experience. We start with the question of taste. Are there standards we can use to determine that a work of art, literature, or music is good? Or is quality simply a matter of personal preference? We examine in detail Immanuel Kant's revolutionary attempt to show that aesthetic judgments are both subjective and universal. Then we look at three later developments -- Martin Heidegger's ontological approach to art, Maurice Merleau-Ponty's emphasis on one's bodily engagement with art, and Gilles Deleuze's "logic of sensation" applied to the work of Francis Bacon. Throughout the semester we consider how these insights and theories apply to a culturally diverse set of works. This course will be of interest to serious students of philosophy, literature, visual and media studies, music, and art criticism.