Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

This philosophy course explores the idea that art is not marginal to human concerns, but a key element in emotional, social and psychological life. Many philosophers have proposed that art is not only the highest human achievement but an essential realm which allows humans to imaginatively reconstruct themselves and the worlds they inhabit. From Greek tragedy to Postmodern conceptualism, we will explore the human drive not only to live life, but to make representations of it. Over ten weeks, we will examine the ideas of philosophers such as Schopenhauer in The World as Will and Representation (1969); Friedrich Schelling’s idea of art as religion; Marx’s critique of art as a form of bourgeois religion; the Avant-Garde’s idea of ‘the new’; and end with a wide ranging discussion of contemporary art.

Content

• The dispute between Aristotle and Plato hinges around the role of emotions in the art of dramatic tragedy. Plato feared the poets and dramatists because he believed that they had too much power over the attitudes of the people, Aristotle agrees about the power of art but proposes that the power of emotions in art could be harnessed for good social purposes.
• Aristotle's philosophy of the theatre is the first comprehensive attempt by a critic to work out the mechanisms which produce the emotional effects of theatre. We will study his theory of 'mimesis' and the role of 'cathartics'