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FaVU-1EST-1Acad. year: 2024/2025
The Aesthetics 1-4 course series offers students a comprehensive overview of the tradition and present of aesthetic thinking in a broader cultural context. The primary focus is on the philosophy of art, but the series also includes an explanation of basic aesthetic categories (aesthetic experience, aesthetic attitude, aesthetic object, aesthetic function, norm, quality, value, taste, beauty, ugliness, the sublime), an introduction to issues of non-art aesthetics (aesthetics of nature, applied art, design, popular and mass culture, aesthetics of the everyday), or topics in the theory of individual art forms, media theory, and visual culture studies. In addition to philosophical conceptions of art and aesthetics, approaches from other humanities disciplines (psychology, sociology, anthropology, visual studies, gender studies, critical race theory) are also considered. Over the course of the four-semester cycle, students will gradually become familiar with the interpretation of the issues from both historical and systematic perspectives.
Aesthetics 1 introduces the history of European thought about art and aesthetics from antiquity to the 19th century.
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Department
Entry knowledge
Rules for evaluation and completion of the course
The following conditions are set for the granting of the examination:
Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the FFA BUT in the hours determined by the schedule. Attendance is compulsory (3 unexcused absences allowed). Higher number of absences can be compensated by submitting an alternative assignment after agreement with the teacher.
Aims
The aim of the course is to introduce students to the history of European thought on art and aesthetics from antiquity to the 19th century. Students will gain a basic overview of the issues, concepts and personalities of this long period in the history of European philosophy, with an emphasis on the thematization of art and the aesthetic.
Study aids
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Recommended reading
Elearning
Classification of course in study plans
Lecture
Teacher / Lecturer
Syllabus
1. The origins of European philosophy in antiquity. The nature of philosophical enquiry. Ancient theories of beauty (Presocratics, Plato). Ancient concept of art (techné, ars).
2. Art as mimesis. The concept of imitation and the theory of arts in Plato and Aristotle.
3. The concept of art, beauty and the sublime in the philosophy of late antiquity. Free and mechanical arts. The concept of art and beauty in the Middle Ages.
4. The conception of beauty and art in the Renaissance. Humanism. Changes in the social framework of the production and reception of art.
5. Modern philosophy. Rationalism vs. empiricism. Enlightenment.
6. The beginnings of modern aesthetics and art theory in the 18th century. Batteaux and the "beautiful arts". Baumgarten and aesthetics. Taste in Shaftesbury, Hutcheson and Hume. Burke and the sublime.
7. Kant and the establishment of modern aesthetics. The foundations of Kant's critical philosophy. Kant's theory of taste, beauty, the sublime and genius.
8. Art, beauty and society in German thought of the second half and the end of the 18th century. Winckelmann and art history. Lessing and the discovery of the medium. Schiller, early German Romanticism and the educational role of art.
9. Hegel and the discovery of the history of art. The context of Hegel's philosophy, the dialectical method. The place of art in the history of the Spirit.
10. Art and society in 19th century thought. Utopian socialism and Marxism. Comte, Tain, Ruskin, Morris. The Theory of Realism – Lukács
11. Aestheticism in artistic practice and philosophy. Dandism, l'art pour l'art. Baudelaire, Wilde, Kierkegaard. Modern artistic movements and their theories.
12. Student presentations and discussions of topics covered during the semester.
13. Student presentations and discussions on topics covered during the semester.