PHIL 156: What Is Art?

PHIL 156-A01: What is Art?
(Summer 2017)

10:30 AM to 12:35 PM MTWR

Music Theater Building 1004

Section Information for Summer 2017

Session 1A MTWR 10:30 am-12:35 pm

Instructor: Dr. Kurt Brandhorst

Offers an opportunity to fulfill the Mason Core ‘Arts’ requirement or the CHSS requirement for a course in Philosophy or Religious Studies via an intensive 5 week course.

What is Art? explores philosophical questions surrounding the status, production and meaning of art. We will start by looking at some artwork that will help set up some parameters for reading an image. Then we will explore what characterizes the work of art and how this relates to the social, cultural and theoretical expectations about art via a reading of Danto (institutional theory), Nochlin and Berger (gender and power) and Fisher (museum theory).

In the second half of the course, we will take a detailed look at some particular philosophers who explore questions about art, truth and beauty, as well as about the production and reproduction of art, for example: Plato, Schopenhauer, and Benjamin. Throughout the course we will be looking at both specific examples of art and particular case studies of theory.

This course will help you to develop your skills of visual analysis as well as your capacities for sustained academic writing.

Tags:

Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Introduction to philosophical reflection on the arts by looking at the critical issues in the history of aesthetics. Applies considerations to specific works and explores these works in terms of their historical contexts and influences. Concentrates on one form of art or one period and always emphasizes questions of critical evaluation and art historical analysis. Limited to three attempts.
Mason Core: Arts
Schedule Type: Lecture
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.