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2023/2024

Aesthetics

Code: 100277 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500246 Philosophy OB 2 1

Contact

Name:
Jèssica Jaques Pi
Email:
jessica.jaques@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.

Teachers

Bárbara Bayarri Viñas
Daniela Callejas Arsitizabal

Prerequisites

There are no special prerequirements. 


Objectives and Contextualisation

The general objectives of the course are:

  1. The knowledge of the fundamental texts of the history of aesthetics, as well as its vocabulary and argumentation
  2. The application of this vocabulary and argumentation to contemporary discursive praxis and its connection with aesthetic practices. This second objective locates the subject in the field of applied aesthetics.

The specific objectives of the subject are:

  1. The understanding of art as a privileged place for thinking
  2. The knowledge of the points of intersection between aesthetics and the philosophical tradition
  3. The knowledge of some of the fundamental texts of the aesthetic tradition
  4. The presentation of aesthetics as a fundamental gnoseology
  5. The knowledge of arguments and a vocabulary to understand the aesthetic tradition and the aesthetic dimension of the contemporary world
  6. The establishment of a dialogue between the texts of the aesthetic tradition and contemporary art according to the procedures of applied aesthetics
  7. The cultivation of the student's aesthetic sensitivity as a required sense for knowledge

Competences

  • Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Identifying the main philosophical attitudes in the field of aesthetics and critically applying them in the art world.
  • Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately describing an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  2. Accurately drawing up normative texts.
  3. Accurately using the specific lexicon of the history of philosophy.
  4. Analysing the fundamental concepts of Theory of Art with a critical eye.
  5. Carrying out a planning for the development of a subject-related work.
  6. Carrying out oral presentations using an appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
  7. Correctly drawing up a previously analysed non-regulatory text.
  8. Correctly, accurately and clearly communicating the acquired philosophical knowledge in oral and written form.
  9. Distinguishing and analysing classical and current debates of the History of Art.
  10. Distinguishing and analysing representative texts of the main genres of the philosophical literature.
  11. Distinguishing and outlining the fundamental content of a philosophical text.
  12. Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
  13. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  14. Identifying the main ideas of a related text and drawing a diagram.
  15. Identifying the regulatory, stylistic or argumentative errors of a text.
  16. Indicating and summarising the common content of several manifestations of various fields of culture.
  17. Interpreting the contents of a text about Theory of Art.
  18. Producing an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
  19. Recognise and define the common thinking present in a multidisciplinary context.
  20. Recognising, with a critical eye, aesthetic referents of the past and present and assessing its importance.
  21. Relating several ideas of the current philosophical debates.
  22. Relating the characteristic elements and factors of the philosophical tradition.
  23. Solving problems autonomously.
  24. Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.

Content

The aim of this course is to develop theoretical and methodological tools that allow us to understand the transformations of the sensitive fabric that we call aisthesis. Although aesthetics is a relatively recent discipline, it has a broad, dense and stratified history. This is why we propose an entry into its vast territory from an approach that tackles a theoretical perspective from the knots and structural movements that constitute it. In this sense, the subject is articulated on the basis of the tensions that have configured aisthesis as a history of contradictions, transits and disputes. 
 
The programme will be articulated under the horizon of a double effort: on the one hand, the understanding of the fundamental notions of aesthetics; and, on the other hand, experimenting with its possible application to contemporary discursive praxis. 
 

Contents

 

Theme 1: The Aesthetic Experience

Readings

Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgement, Oxford University Press, [1790] 2008, [selected fragments].

G.W.F Hegel, Lectures on Aesthetics, [selected fragments].  

 

Theme 2: Art as creativity

Readings

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Penguin, 1993, 

Konrad Paul Liessmann, Philosophie der modernen Kunst : eine Einführung, Wien : WUV-Universitätsverlag, 1993. 

 

Theme 3: Art and Politics 

Readings

Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in theAge of Mechanical Reproduction” [1935]; Surrealism, [1929], [selected fragments]. 

Herbert Marcuse, Aesthetic dimension ; Eros and civilization, [selected excerpts]

Jacques Rancière, The Distribution of the Sensible: Politics and Aesthetics, [selected fragments].

 

Theme 4: Art and the Thought of Difference

Readings

Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Ar", [selected fragments].

Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon The Logic of Sensation [selected fragments].

 

Theme 5: Art and Feminisms

Readings

Griselda Pollock, Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and Histories of Art, [selected fragments].

María Laura Rosa, Legacies of Freedom. Feminist art in the democratic effervescence, [selected fragments].

 

 

 
 
 

Methodology

The methodology of the classes will combine lectures and seminars, with the use of texts, visual and audiovisual material. In preparation for the seminars, students must read the texts proposed in each topic on a weekly basis, so the subject requires a commitment to individual reading, on the basis of which they will work in the group sessions. In the same way, situated knowledge will be promoted, hence the importance of the perspective of thinking through different artistic practices, within their sensitive fabric. 
 
Students will also have individual tutorials in which they can be accompanied in the development of their work or in specific doubts related to their own research. 
 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures, seminars, small-group and individual tutorials 60 2.4 4, 10, 12, 17, 20, 21, 22, 3
Type: Supervised      
Exhibition visits, artistic events, tests, participation in seminars 30 1.2 8, 2, 11, 6, 15, 14, 24, 7
Type: Autonomous      
Individual and group readings, making of conceptual and evolutive maps 50 2 2, 11, 18, 5, 15, 24, 7, 23

Assessment

OPCION 1

 

Continuous evaluation 

There will be three compulsory assessment tests. The evaluation will consist of:

 

a) A presentation in visual essay format in which some of the fundamental transformations of aesthetics are analyzed according to the theoretical framework worked on in class, putting into operation the conceptual developments (34%) (Maximum 10 min, may be done in pairs).


b) The realization of an 8-minute audio, as if it were a podcast for a radio program, in which a work will be analyzed from the link between art and politics, applying the conceptual developments that have been developed. This activity will be in groups of 3 members (33%).


c) The completion of a written exam in which the last two units will be evaluated: 'Art and thought of difference'; 'art and feminisms' (33%) (individual activity).


The exact dates of the deliveries will be announced in the first days of class, in order to be able to coordinate it with the other subjects of the Department.

 

OPCION 2

 

Single evaluation, will consist of:


The completion of a written exam in which all the contents of the subject will be evaluated (100%) (individual activity).

 

Recovery

In the case of continuous evaluation, students who have failed one, two or all three tests may sit a re-evaluation and recovery the test or tests they have failed. In order to be re-evaluated, it will be necessary to have taken at least two of the three tests.

If a student has not taken any of the tests, or has only taken one of the tests, he/she will be considered "not evaluable".

All three tests must be passed in order to pass the course. The final mark will be the average mark of the three tests.

 

In the case of a single evaluation, the reevaluation will consist of a written exam in which allthe contents will be evaluated.  

In the event that the student makes any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with 0, regardless of the learning process that may be instructed. In case of several irregularities in the assessment acts of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0.


Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Film visual essay 34% 4 0.16 4, 16, 8, 12, 5, 6, 13, 14, 17, 24, 19, 21, 22, 23, 3
Podcast 33% 3 0.12 4, 16, 8, 1, 9, 5, 6, 13, 14, 24, 19, 20, 21, 22, 3
Written exam 33% 3 0.12 2, 10, 11, 18, 15, 14, 17, 7, 22, 3

Bibliography

 1. Compulsory readings 

 

Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgement, Oxford University Press, [1790] 2008, [selected fragments].

G.W.F Hegel, Lectures on Aesthetics, [selected fragments].  

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Penguin, 1993, 

Konrad Paul Liessmann, Philosophie der modernen Kunst : eine Einführung, Wien : WUV-Universitätsverlag, 1993. 

Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in theAge of Mechanical Reproduction” [1935]; Surrealism, [1929], [selected fragments]. 

Herbert Marcuse, aesthetic dimension; Eros and Civilization,  [selected fragments]. 

Jacques Rancière, The Distribution of the Sensible: Politics and Aesthetics, [selected fragments].

Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Ar", [selected fragments].

Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon The Logic of Sensation [selected fragments].

Griselda Pollock, Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and Histories of Art, [selected fragments].

María Laura Rosa, Legacies of Freedom. Feminist art in the democratic effervescence, [selected fragments].

 

2. Secondary Bibliography

ARNHEIM, R., Arte y percepción visual, Alianza Forma, Madrid, 2002

BARASCH, M., Teorías del Arte: De Platón a Winckelmann, Alianza, Madrid, 1991; Modern Theories of Art, 1: From Winckelmann to Baudelaire, New York UniversityPress, New York, 1990; Modern Theories of Art, 2: From Impressionism to Kandinsky, New York University press, New York andLondon, 1998.

BOZAL, V., Historia de lasideas estéticas I iII, Historia 16, Madrid1998; (ed.), Historia de las ideas estéticas y de las teorías artísticas contemporáneas. Visor, Madrid, 1996.

CARROLL, N.,  Philosophy of Art. Routledge, 1999.

CASACUBERTA, D., “Nueve escollos para entender la cultura digital”. Enrahonar: Quaderns de filosofía, ISSN 0211-402X, Nº 32-33, 2001, pags. 235-244

DAVIS, S., The Philosophy of Art. Blackwell, 2006.

DANTO, A. C., El abuso de la belleza. La estética y el concepto del arte. Paidós, Barcelona, 2005.

DANTO, A.,  “La obra de arte y el futuro histórico”, La madonna del futuro. Paidós, Barcelona, 2003 (2000).

FISHER, E., La necesidad del arte. Barcelona, Nexos, 1993 (1959)

GAUT, B.; LOPES, D. (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics.Second Edition, Routledge, 2005.

GOMBRICH, E. H., Breve historia de la cultura, Ediciones Península, Barcelona, 2004. 

GOMBRICH, E. H., La historia del arte. Madrid, Phaidon (1950).

GUASCH, Anna Maria (coord.), La crítica de arte, Ediciones del Serbal, Barcelona, 2003.

JAQUES, J.,“El sentido estético”, Disturbis 3 <http://www.disturbis.esteticauab.org/Disturbis234/Disturbis_3.html>

JAQUES, J., , “Ernst Cassirer y la urdimbredelamemoria simbólica”, Er 33, pp. 59-73,2004.

JAQUES, J., “Neokantisme i neokantians”, Enrahonar 23, 1995, 35-69.

JAQUES, J., “Notícia d’Ernst Cassirer”, Enrahonar 24, 199.

JAQUES, J., “Friendships are not in heaven. The Genealogy between Aristotle’s Philia and Kant’s Aesthetic Disinterestedness”. Revista de Filosofía, Vol. 37, n. 2 (2012): 55-68.

JAQUES, J. (ed.), “Pels camins de la raó crítica”, 36 (2004), número extraordinari sobre Kant en el segon centenari.

JAUSS, H. R., Pequeña apología de la experiencia estética. Barcelona, Paidós, 2002 (1972)

JIMENEZ, M.,  ¿Qué es la estética?, Barcelona, Idea Books, 1999.

JIMÉNEZ, J., Teoría del Arte, Tecnos, Madrid, 2002.

KELLY, M., (ed.), Oxford Enciclopedia of  Aesthetics, 1998. 2a edició, 2014. (Especialment recomanat)

KIERAN, M., (ed.), Contempory Debates in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art. Blackwell, 2006.

KRIS, E. i KURZ, O., La Leyenda del artista, Ensayos Arte Cátedra, Madrid, 1982.

LAMARQUE, P., – H. OLSEN, H., (eds.), Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. The Analytic Tradition. An Anthology.  Oxford, Blackwell, 2004.

LYNCH, Enrique, Sobre la belleza,Anaya, Madrid, 1999.

LEVINSON, J., Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, 2003.

MURRAY, Chris, Key Writers on art: From Antiquity to the Ninetenth Century, Routledge, London and new York, 2003; Pensadores clave sobre el arte: elsiglo XX. Ensayosarte Cátedra, Madrid 2006.

NIETZSCHE, F., El naixement de la Tragèdia. Madrid,Alianza Editorial, 1995 (1872).

RAMIREZ,J.A. Ecosistema y explosión de las artes. Anagrama, Barcelona 1994. (Especialmentrecomanat)

SHINER, Larry,La invención del arte, Paidós Estética 36, Barcelona, 2004.

TATARKIEWICZ, e.,  Historia  de  seis  idees. Madid, Taurus, 1987 (1976). (Especialment recomanat)

VALVERDE, J. M., Breve historia y antología de la estética, Barcelona, Ariel. (Especialment recomanat)

VILAR, G.,  Las razones del arte. Madrid, Antonio Machado, 2005.

VILAR, G., La desartización del arte. Universidad de Salamanca, 2012.

 

 

 

C. Online sources

 

http://esteticauab.org/home.html

www.disturbis.net

https://vimeo.com/instituthumanitatsbcn

www.museupicasso.bcn.es

http://fundaciomiro-bcn.org

http://www.macba.cat

www.fundaciotapies.org

www.museoreinasofia.es

www.museodelprado.es

www.tate.org.uk/modern

www.centrepompidou.fr

www.palaisdetokyo.com

www.moma.org

https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/history

https://www.edx.org/

http://www.canal-u.tv/producteurs/universite_de_tous_les_savoirs

https://www.ted.com/talks

 


Software

No especific software is needed