Firstbridge courses are offered to degree seeking freshmen and registration is done via webform in pre-arrival checklist.
Professor(s)
Notes
The object of this course is the critical examination of the history of aesthetic philosophy to address the essential issues of representation in art and to interrogate how philosophers have conceptualized the role and function of art in society. We often think of art as the activity of an individual who expresses and represents the world around us via a diverse variety of techniques. In this course however, we will be interrogating the inverse, what is the social existence of art? Put in other words, how is the world represented to us via art, what role does it play in society, and how does it influence us not as its producers but as its audience?
To answer these broader questions, we will draw on the history of aesthetic philosophy, from Ancient Greece to our contemporary times, to examine how philosophers have posed and answered questions such as if art has any instrumental value for broader society? That is, should art serve a particular function in society, such as educating people? Does the art produced by a particular society reflect its values? Can art serve certain political and ideological interests?
Learning Outcomes
- Information Literacy: Students will comprehend how information is produced and valued in order to discover, evaluate, use, and create information and knowledge effectively and ethically. In FirstBridge, students will demonstrate the conversational nature of scholarship, and recognize their potential role and responsibilities as contributors to that conversation. For each discipline taught in FirstBridge, students will identify reference works, journals, databases and/or major works in history, in order to start effective research in the field (FB LO1)
- Life at University: Students will acquire the study skills, time management, and interpersonal skills needed to meet the demands of university-level academic work at a Liberal Arts College individually or as a team. Students will value the multiple meanings of place through experiential learning at AUP and beyond in the Parisian or global context (FB LO2)
- Students will engage with artistic or creative objects (e.g., visual art, theatrical works, film) in different media and from a range of cultural traditions. (CCI LO2)
- Students will demonstrate awareness of ethical considerations relating to specific societal problems, values, or practices (historical or contemporary; global or local) and learn to articulate possible solutions to prominent challenges facing societies and institutions today so as to become engaged actors at various levels in our interconnected world. (CCI LO4)
Syllabus
Schedule
| Day | Start Time | End Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
Tuesday | 13:45 | 15:05 | SD-1 |
Friday | 13:45 | 15:05 | SD-1 |