Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Lecture series on Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. The first part of the series focuses on some of the most important writings on art and beauty in the Western philosophical tradition, covering Plato, Aristotle, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. The second part of the series focuses on questions about understanding works of art and about the nature of art. This part examines the interpretation of literature, the expression of emotion in music, and the definition of artThemes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Western aesthetics and philosophy of art • Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant on art, beauty, taste • literary interpretation • musical emotion expression • theories defining artThis podcast presents a short lecture series on aesthetics and the philosophy of art, taught from within the Western philosophical tradition. It begins by introducing major historical approaches to art and beauty through close attention to influential figures such as Plato and Aristotle, then moves into early modern and Enlightenment debates about evaluative judgment, including questions about whether taste can be assessed by standards and what makes aesthetic judgment more than a statement of personal preference. A substantial portion of the series is devoted to Immanuel Kant’s treatment of aesthetic experience, focusing on themes central to the *Critique of Judgment*, such as how judgments of beauty relate to pleasure, universality, and the way we experience form.
Alongside these canonical texts, the lectures take up broader philosophical problems about how artworks are understood and what kinds of meaning they can convey. The series addresses interpretive questions in literature, including how to think about the relationship between a text and its possible readings, and what counts as a justified interpretation. It also explores the expression of emotion in music, considering how music can seem to communicate or embody feeling and what it might mean to attribute emotional content to non-representational sounds.
Across the series, the focus shifts from historical foundations to more general theorizing about the nature of art itself. The lectures culminate in the conceptual problem of defining art: what properties, practices, or contexts might distinguish artworks from non-art objects, and how philosophical definitions attempt to capture the diversity of artistic forms. Overall, this podcast offers a structured introduction to central debates about beauty, taste, interpretation, expression, and the definition of art, presented in an academic lecture format.
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8. Defining Art 2011-Mar-15 52 minutes |
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7. Musical Expression 2011-Mar-15 52 minutes |
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6. Literary Interpretation 2011-Mar-15 54 minutes |
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5. Kant's Critique of Judgement: Lecture 2 2011-Mar-15 53 minutes |
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4. Kant's Critique of Judgement: Lecture 1 2011-Mar-15 55 minutes |
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3. Hume and the Standard of Taste 2011-Mar-15 55 minutes |
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2. Aristotle's Poetics 2011-Mar-15 55 minutes |
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1. Plato's Philosophy of Art 2011-Mar-15 54 minutes |