OAS 305 Philosophy of Arts (Western Aesthetics)

Program :

Baccalaureate in Philosophy

Semester :

03

Credits :

01

Teacher :

Rev. Dr Madathisseril Sebastian

Aim

The concern of the course is to provide a philosophical vision of the nature and value of art and literature. The course starts from the historical development of the theme, up to the 20th century aestheticians. It discusses the different theories of aesthetic creativity namely the imitation theory, representation theory, how the classical Greek philosophers namely Plato and Aristotle responded differently to these theories, expressionist theory, formalist theory, neo-representation theory, neo-Wittgenstein open concept, and institutional theory of art. The discussion is centred on the fact that these different theories that explain the very nature of art has its importance for culture and personal formation. In the final part some space is allotted to discuss the origin of Christian art, the iconoclastic dispute and the different ways of understanding the image in East and West Christianity. The point of such inquiry is not to explain what occurs in the artist’s study; rather it is to discover the meaning of those occurrences, as it is to discover the meanings of aesthetic experiences or the transactions that take place between a human consciousness and what is presented as a work of art.

References

  1. Carritt, E.F., The Theory of Beauty, London, 1914.
  2. Bosanquet, B., A History of Aesthetics, London, 1934.
  3. Croce, B., Guide to Aesthetics, Indianapolis, 1995.
  4. Pandey, K.C., Comparative Aesthetics (2 Vols.) Vol.1: Indian Aesthetics; Vol.2: Western Aesthetics, Varnasi, 2005.
  5. Adorno T. W., Aesthetic Theory, University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
  6. Hofstadter A., Kuhns R., eds., Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Selected Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger, University of Chicago Press, 1976
  7. Dasgupta, S.N., Fundamentals of Indian Art, Bombay 1954.
  8. Levinson J., The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005.
  9. Scruton, R. Beauty, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009.
  10. Steiner, G., Real Presences, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1989.
  11. Steiner, G., Grammars of Creation, Yale University Press, London 2001.