PHI2016S – Philosophy of Art & Literature
PHILOSOPHY OF ART & LITERATURE
Reading List:
- What is Art?
o - Bell, Clive Art (extract) (New York; Frederick A. Stokes Company,1914)
o Collingwood, R. G. The Principles of Art (Oxford: OUP, 1938), pp 273-285
- Tragedy
o Aristotle. Poetics(extract)(translated by S.H. Butcher) (London; Macmillan, 1895) (
o Rorty, Amélie. “The Psychology of Aristotelian Tragedy” in Essays on
Aristotle’sPoetics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp 1-22
o Hume, David "Of Tragedy" in Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary Ed: E. F.
Miller(Indianapolis Liberty, Classic: 1987) pp 216-225.
o Schier, Flint. “The Claims of Tragedy: An Essay in Moral Psychology and
AestheticTheory”, Philosophical Papers (1989), Vol. 18:1, pp 7-26
o Nietzsche, Friedrich. “The Birth of Tragedy” in John & Lopes (eds) Philosophy
ofLiterature: Contemporary and Classic Readings (Oxford; Blackwell, 2004), pp 29-35
o Price, Amy. “Nietzsche and the Paradox of Tragedy”, The British Journal of Aesthetics,
38:4 (1998), pp384-393
- The Beautiful and the Sublime
o Hutcheson, Francis. Extract from An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty
and Virtue (Indianapolis; Liberty Fund, 2004 [1725]
o Kant, Immanuel. Selected excerpts from The Critique of Judgement,translated with
Introduction and Notes by J.H. Bernard (2nd ed. revised) (London: Macmillan, 1914).
o Crawford, Donald. “Kant” in The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics, Edited by Berys
Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes (Routledge, 2001) pp 51-64.
o Burke, Edmund A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas Ofthe Sublime
and Beautiful (London, 1757)
o Cochrane, Tom “The emotional experience of the sublime” in The Canadian Journal
ofPhilosophy, Vol. 42:2 (2012), pp 125-148
- The Ethical Criticism of Art
o Gaut, Berys. “The Ethical Criticism of Art” in John & and Lopes (eds), Philosophy of
Literature: Contemporary and Classic Readings (Oxford; Blackwell, 2004), pp 355-363
o Carroll, Noël. “Moderate Moralism” The British Journal of Aesthetics, 36:3 (1996),
pp223-238
o Anderson and Dean, “Moderate Autonomism” The British Journal of Aesthetics,
38:2(1998), pp 150-166
o Devereaux, Mary, “Beauty and evil: the case of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the
Will” in Levinson, J (ed.), Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection (Cambridge
University Press, 1998), pp 227-256
- The Intentional Fallacy
o Wimsatt and Beardsley. “The Intentional Fallacy” in Wimsatt, W. K., The Verbal
Icon,(London; Methuen, 1954) pp 3-18
o Carroll, Noël. “Art, Intention and Conversation” in Iseminger, Gary (ed), Intentionand
Interpretation (Philadelphia; Temple University Press, 1992) pp 97-124
o Irvin, Sherri. “Authors, Intentions and Literary Meaning”, Philosophy Compass1/2
(2006): 114–128
- Pictorial Representation
,PHI2016S – Philosophy of Art & Literature
o Rollins, Mark. “Pictorial Representation” in Gaut, B. and McIver Lopes, D (eds),
TheRoutledge Companion to Aesthetics, (Routledge, 2001) pp 297-312.
o Carroll, Noël. “Art and Representation” in Philosophies of Art: A
ContemporaryIntroduction, (London & New York: Routledge, 2005) pp 34-49
o Kulvicki, John. “Pictorial Representation” in Philosophy Compass Vol 1: 6 (2006),
pp535-546
WHAT IS ART?
Wollheim–Bricoleur Problem
- Definition: The issue of why certain materials or processes are
considered art while others are not.
- Significance: A theory that addresses this problem is systematically
informative.
VARIOUS KINDS OF ART FORMS
Movies
Theatre
Opera
Dance
Literature: Literary works are found in books, but the physical book is
not the art itself.
Music
THEORIES ABOUT THE NATURE OF ART
1. Formalism
- Key Figures: Clive Bell, Roger Fry
- Concept: Emphasizes the formal properties of art (e.g., lines, colors) over
representational content.
2. Institutional Theory of Art
- Concept: What is considered ‘art’ is decided by the art institution,
influenced by culturally relevant factors.
3. Expression Theory of Art
- Key Figures: Collingwood, Wollheim
- Concept: Art is essentially expressive.
4. Representational Theory of Art
- Concept: Art aims to reproduce something in the world.
,PHI2016S – Philosophy of Art & Literature
5. Ethical Vision Theory
- Key Figures: Plato, Tolstoy
- Concept: Art is about communicating an ethical vision.
6. Arthur Danto
- Concept: Art as metaphor.
CLIVE BELL AND THE BLOOMSBURY SET
- Members: Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, John Maynard Keynes, E. M.
Forster, Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington.
- Contribution: Developed aesthetic formalism, focusing on the formal
properties of paintings.
REQUIREMENTS FOR A GOOD ART CRITIC
- Qualities: Artistic sensibility and clear thinking.
- Role: To help others see new aspects of a work of art and experience
aesthetic emotion.
SIGNIFICANT FORM
- Definition: The relation and combinations of lines and colors that give
rise to aesthetic emotion.
- Subjectivity: Significant form cannot be objectively measured
(referencing David Hume’s “Of the Standard of Taste”).
AESTHETIC EMOTION
- Definition: A unique emotion provoked by works of art due to their
significant form.
- Difference from Other Emotions: Not a common emotion like sadness or
joy.
DESCRIPTIVE PAINTING
- Definition: Paintings that use forms to suggest emotion or convey
information rather than being objects of emotion.
- Examples: Portraits of psychological and historical value, topographical
works, story-telling pictures, and illustrations.
PADDINGTON STATION (WILLIAM POWELL FRITH)
• Clive Bell’s View:
o Not considered a work of art.
o Described as an interesting and amusing document.
o Reason: Uses line and color to recount anecdotes, suggest ideas, and indicate
manners and customs of an age, rather than to provoke aesthetic emotion.
, PHI2016S – Philosophy of Art & Literature
o Forms and Relations: For Frith, these were means of suggesting emotion and
conveying ideas, not objects of emotion.
IMITATION THEORY OF ART
• Clive Bell’s Dispute:
o Bell disputes the imitation theory of art.
• Socrates’ View:
“Then the imitator … is a long way off the truth, and can do all things because he
lightly touches on a small part of them, and that part an image. For example: A
painter will paint a cobbler, carpenter, or any other artist, though he knows nothing
of their arts; and, if he is a good artist, he may deceive children or simple persons,
when he shows them his picture of a carpenter from a distance, and they will fancy
that they are looking at a real carpenter.”
o Imitators are far from the truth and can only touch on a small part of things,
creating images.
o Example: A painter can depict a cobbler or carpenter without knowing their
craft, potentially deceiving viewers into thinking they see the real thing.
AESTHETIC REALM
• Separation from Ordinary World:
o Art is separate from politics, ethical issues, or personal interests.
o Such content is irrelevant to the work of art as art.
• Appreciation of Art:
o Requires no prior knowledge of life’s ideas, affairs, or emotions.
“Art transports us from the world of man’s activity to a world of aesthetic exaltation. For a
moment we are shut off from human interests; our anticipations and memories are arrested;
we are lifted above the stream of life.”
o Art transports us to a world of aesthetic exaltation, away from human
interests and life’s stream.
SIGNIFICANT FORM IN DIFFERENT ART FORMS
• Relative to Each Genre:
o Significant form varies across artistic genres.
o What constitutes significant form in a painting differs from that in a poem,
sonata, or dance.
