Learning outcomes

Aesthetics
The course aims to provide the conceptual, methodological and cultural foundations for analyzing and interpreting aesthetic problems in the strict sense (sensitive perception and knowledge) and works of art in a broader sense. In this sense specific knowledge is transmitted (interpretative theories and artistic practices within the context of history of Western aesthetical reflection) which, subsequently, are applied to specific problems (perception in general and to particular works). The course aims to make people understand the conceptual logics and structures, through which aesthetical experience lets us comprehend the world we live, and transform it. At the end of course, students will develop the ability to comprehend a philosophical text, to correctly approach it from a hermeneutical perspective, and to use a precise and adequate language; moreover, it aims at allowing the student to acquire the competences to confront himself with the sensitive perception and with the artistic world so as to be able to independently form a critical judgment. Finally, students will have the capacity to communicate philosophical contents to specialists and non-specialists alike, and to continue their studies at a MA level.

Program

WHAT IS ART?
The course program includes explores the main theories and the main aesthetic debates about the definition of art. It will be a question of understanding the complexity and semantic vastness of the term, and its ramifications in the history of Western thought. Since its Greek origins, the notion of téchne has simultaneously started a philosophical reflection on the essence of art and that on the notion of technique / technology. From this double register, the reflection on the definition of art will unfold, at least up to Kant. Contemporaneity initiates a radical rethinking of these categories, up to the questioning of the very concept of art. The course, enhancing both a historical-philosophical awareness and a theoretical attitude, will illustrate some classics of philosophy on the topic of the definition of art, and the main current debates in the Analytic context.
1) A first section will propose a short historical-conceptual itinerary on the problems of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art, to allow students to become familiar with some fundamental concepts of the discipline.
2) A second section will analyse more specifically the theme of the philosophical definition of art. In this section the contents of the texts in the program will be presented.


REFERENCE TEXTS
Preparation for the exam consists of a mandatory text and a text chosen from those reported in the list below.

1) Mandatory text:

 M. Ophälders, Philosophy of Aesthetic Art, Mimesis, Milan 2008

2) A text chosen from those listed below:

 G. Agamben, Man without content, Quodlibet, Macerata 2013.
 G. Bertram, Art. A philosophical introduction, Einaudi, Turin 2008.
 M. Heidegger, "The origin of the work of art", in Id., Holzwege, Bompiani, Milan 2002.
 A. Danto, What is art, Johan & Levi, Monza 2014.
 P.A. Porceddu Cilione, The absolute format, Orthotes, Naples-Salerno 2018.
 G. Figal, The manifestation of art, Mimesis, Milan 2015.
 P. D'Angelo, Introduction to analytical aesthetics, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2008.
 M. Perniola, Art and its shadow, Einaudi, Turin 2000.
 I. Kant, Critique of the faculty of judgment (edited by E. Garroni and H. Hohenegger), Einaudi, Turin 1999.
 N. Goodman, Seeing and building the world, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2008.
 W. Tatarkiewicz, History of six ideas, Aesthetica, Palermo 2001.

Bibliografia

Examination Methods