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Values of Art (PHIL20048)
Undergraduate level 2Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
Overview
Availability | Semester 2 |
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Fees | Look up fees |
For cultural critic bell hooks, art has the power to transform lives -- but culture, class, gender and race conspire to ensure that only a select few benefit from art’s transformative power. But in what respects, exactly, can art transform lives? In other words, why is it so important that everyone should have access to it? This subject aims to address this question.
As the subject progresses, we will be critically evaluating various philosophical theories regarding the value of art. Questions we will explore include: Can art facilitate understanding, and if so, understanding of what? Is art necessarily expressive? What is artistic expression, anyway? What distinguishes the art forms, and what (if anything) unifies them? Can art give us the strength to carry on in the face of life's suffering? Can art prompt political action -- and if it can, should it?
Readings will range from the historical (including Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche) to the contemporary (including Iris Murdoch, Martha Nussbaum and W. E. B. DuBois). To inform our discussion, we will visit Melbourne's art galleries, listen to music, and reflect on our own creative practices.
Intended learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to:
- Evaluate central themes in contemporary and historical aesthetics
- Develop skills in philosophical reasoning, both in interpreting texts and in shaping their own philosophical arguments
- Bring philosophical theories to bear on their own experiences of art
- Critically analyze and assess different philosophical perspectives on the nature and value of art
- Apply concepts from aesthetics and philosophy of art to real-world issues and debates in the art world.
Generic skills
Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to:
- Think critically
- Analyse and evaluate concepts, theories, and arguments
- Develop and present arguments for or against a position
- Consider multiple viewpoints and arguments for those viewpoints
- Articulate ideas, concepts, and interpretations with clarity and coherence
- Engage in critical reflection, synthesis, and evaluation of research-based and scholarly literature.
Last updated: 4 March 2025