Summary
Dates
Type
Literature
Read?
Summary?
Topic
Week 1: Introduction to the course What is
aesthetics (and what is it not)?
Learning Objectives
explain when, how and why aesthetics emerged as an independent
philosophical discipline;
explain the difference between philosophy of art, art criticism and social sciences
such as art history and the sociology of culture;
explain the difference between aesthetics (in a broad and a narrow sense) and
the philosophy of art.
Introduction: what is philosophy of art?
three major developments that explain interest:
1. Modern art itself; constantly pushing boundaries of the 'artistic' seeking +
providing answers to what art really is
→ Permanent drive for renewal → more artists turn to philosophy to support their
concepts
2. Developments within the art world; dispersed because of postmodernism →
crisis of legitimacy
→ Stimulated theoretical reflection on art
3. Philosophy; renewed interest in art/aesthetics
Summary 1
, The terms 'Philosophy of Art' and 'Aesthetics'
Baumgarten: aesthetics is science of sense knowledge → included whole range
of sensibility, such as taste, judgement, imagination, experience...
It's based on feelings of pleasure or displeasure → should contribute to a further
cultivation and perfection of taste and sensibility
Baumgarten: science of aesthetics would establish the rules of artistic or natural
beauty
Kant: "transcendental aesthetics" not about judgements of beauty but based on
sense perception
→ differences with Baumgarten:
1. Kant systematically distinguishes between sense perception per se and
aesthetical judgement
2. Kant based this distinction on a transcedential inquiry into the a priori
conditions presupposed by empirical and aesthetical judgements,
respectively → he did not believe that Baumgarten's aesthetics could
ever establish objective rules
Hegel: "aesthetics" is unsuited, because it referred to both artistic and natural
beauty → should be rectricted to arts and its beauty
Aesthetics - Meanings
1. Empirical investigation into the underlying factors that contribute to aesthetic
experience or perception
2. Systematic study of stylistic and expressive elements, such as composition and
design
3. Various ways that beauty can be studied, included both the experience and the
perception of beauty
4. "Philosophical Aesthetics" = philosophy of art → less broad than aesthetics,
since it deals with art exclusively
Philosophical vs. Scientific Inquiry into Art
Fundamental difference between an empirical study/philosophical one
1. Empirical study: How are we able to form an optical image of a painting?
→ psychology, physiology, and physics of sense of perception
Summary 2
, 2. Philosophical reflection: How is it possible that we can perceive a painting at
all?
→ examine all that is presupposed in our sense and/or aesthetic perception
and what it is that makes it possible
→ Fundamental difference isn't the topic, but the questions asked → not
materially defined, but formally
Aesthetics can be compared with ethics → making value judgements
Week 2: Plato and others: The Imitation
Theory of Art
Learning objectives
explain what Plato meant with his concept of ‘mimesis’ and how his imitation
theory relates to his ontology, epistemology and ethics;
explain the connections and differences between Plato’s and Aristotle’s
understanding of art as ‘mimesis’;
explain how the imitation theory, during the 19th century, culminates into the
artistic movement of realism;
explain and reflect on the major criticisms on the imitation theory developed by
Gombrich and Goodman (and how they were inspired by Kant);
explain how Giacometti was fascinated by the notion of art as ‘mimesis’, while he
struggled with reproducing empirical reality in his art; and how he coped with this
struggle by turning need into a virtue.
Plato: Mimesis
Greek for imitation; image; copy
Metaphysics: the world we can observe is merely a copy of the Ideal World →
reality is beyond what is empirically observable
→ e.g. behind one cat we see, is its ideal form living in the ideal world, created by
God
Ontology: study of the nature of being → artwork = imitation
Epistemology: only through reason can we have access to the Ideal Forms
Summary 3
, Ethics: there is an idea of what morality is, and it can be defined through reason
by philosophers (top of hierarchy)
To reach an optimal 'justice', a Republic should:
1. Have no competition
2. Train people to hold in primary instincts and use their intellect instead
3. Only allow marriages within the same class
4. One is born into a class
→ according to Plato, artists merely create copies of what already is a copy of
reality, thus artwork is unproductive → artists should be banished from the
Republic
Aristotle's take on 'Mimesis'
Imitation shouldn't be criticised, because people learn through imitation
→ art is very central to this
→ e.g. when audience watches a play with violence, they will be 'cleansed' from
the violent elements within them
→ Plato would argue that they would start copying the behaviour, as art
encourage people to use their senses
What we observe with our senses = reality; there is no phenomenal world
From imitation theory to Realism
3 different stages of art as imitation:
1. Platinos: artworks imitations, without a division between crafts and arts
2. Renaissance: artists still believe that they can materialize absulute beauty;
ideal form
3. Realism: emergence of perspective, film and photography → changing
circumstances
Criticism on imitation theory
1. Gombrich
Summary 4
