PLEASE NOTE this is a sample reading list for the 2014-15 academic year – precise seminar content
may change from year to year.
Readings
Useful anthologies:
• Lamarque, Peter and Stein Haugom Olsen, eds (2004), Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The
Analytic Tradition (Oxford: Blackwell) [Abbreviated as L&O below]
• Kieran, Matthew, ed. (2006), Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of
Art (Oxford: Blackwell) [Abbreviated as MK below]
Useful introductory texts:
• Graham, Gordon (2005), Philosophy of the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetics, 3rd edition
(London and New York: Routledge)
• Stecker, Robert (2010), Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: An Introduction, 2nd edition
(Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)
Defining Art (1)
Seminar Reading: week 2
• Beardsley, Monroe C. (1983), 'An Aesthetic Definition of Art,' in Hugh Curtler (ed.), What is
Art? (New York: Haven Publications), 15-29. (L&O)
• Davies, Stephen (1991). 'Weitz’s anti-essentialism' chapter 1, from Stephen Davies, Definitions
of Art (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press) (L&O)
Further reading
• Adajian, Thomas (2012), 'The Definition of Art' The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter
2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/art-definition/>.
• Gaut, Berys (2000), '"Art" as a Cluster Concept,' in Noël Carroll (ed.), Theories of Art
Today (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press), 25-44.
• Gaut, Berys (2005), 'The cluster account of art defended,' British Journal of Aesthetics 45
(3):273-288.
• Lind, Richard (1992), 'The aesthetic essence of art,' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 50
(2):117-129.
• Shelley, James (2003), 'The problem of non-perceptual art,' British Journal of Aesthetics 43
(4):363-378.
• Weitz, Morris (1956), 'The role of theory in aesthetics,' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 15
(1):27-35
• Stecker, Robert (2010), 'What is art?' chapter 5, in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: An
Introduction, 2nd edition (Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)
• Zangwill, Nick (2002), 'Are there counterexamples to aesthetic theories of art?' Journal of
Aesthetics and Art Criticism 60 (2):111–118.
Defining Art (2)
Seminar reading: week 3
• Abell, Catharine (2012), 'Art: What it Is and Why it Matters,' Philosophy and Phenomenological
Research 85 (3):671-691.
• Lopes, Dominic McIver (2008), 'Nobody needs a theory of art,' Journal of Philosophy 105
(3):109-127.
Further reading
• Danto, Arthur (1964), 'The artworld,' Journal of Philosophy 61 (19):571-584. (L&O)
• Dickie, George (1983) 'The New Institutional Theory of Art', Proceedings of the 8th international
Wittgenstein Symposium 10: 57-64 (L&O)
• Dickie, George (2004), 'Defining art: Intension and extension,' in Peter Kivy (ed.), The Blackwell
Guide to Aesthetics (Oxford: Blackwell Pub).
• Levinson, Jerrold (1979), 'Defining art historically' British Journal of Aesthetics 19 (3):21-33.
(L&O)
• Levinson, Jerrold (1989), 'Refining art historically' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 47
(1):21-33.
• Lopes, Dominic McIver (2014), Beyond Art (Oxford: OUP)
• Schellekens, Elisabeth (2014) 'Conceptual Art', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter
2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/conceptual-art/>.
• Stecker, Robert (1986), 'The End of an Institutional Definition of Art,' British Journal of
Aesthetics 26 (2):124-132.
Intentions and Interpretation
Seminar reading: week 4
• Davies, Stephen (2006) ‘Author’s Intentions, Literary Interpretation, and Literary Value’, British
Journal of Aesthetics 46: 223-247
• Goldman, Alan H. (1990), 'Interpreting art and literature,' Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism 48 (3):205-214.
Also, have a look at Plan 9 from Outer Space: http://youtu.be/u2ukRYsYPmo (trailer), you might
want to compare this to Garth Merenghi's Darkplace:http://youtu.be/R-1-62TcN70?list=RDR-162TcN70
Further reading
• Davies, Stephen (2010), 'The hypothetical intentionalist's dilemma: A reply to Levinson,' British
Journal of Aesthetics 50 (3):307-312.
• Iseminger, Gary (1996), 'Actual intentionalism vs. hypothetical intentionalism,' Journal of
Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54 (4):319-326.
• Nathan, Daniel (1992), 'Irony, metaphor, and the problem of intention,' in Gary Iseminger
(ed.), Intention and Interpretation (Temple University Press), 183--202.
• Levinson, Jerrold (1996) ‘Intention and Interpretation in Literature,’ in The Pleasures of
Aesthetics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press), 175-213 (L&O)
• Livingston, Paisley (2010), 'Authorial intention and the varieties of intentionalism,' in Garry
Hagberg & Walter Jost (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature (Oxford: WileyBlackwell).
• Stecker, Robert (2006), 'Moderate actual intentionalism defended,' Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism 64 (4):429-438.
• Stecker, Robert (2010), 'Interpretation and the Problem of the Relevant Intention', chapter 7
• Wimsatt, W. K. and Beardsley, Monroe C. (1954), ‘The Intentional Fallacy’, in The Verbal Icon:
Studies in the Meaning of Poetry (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press), 3-18.
• Nehamas, Alexander (1981), 'The Postulated Author: Critical Monism as a Regulative
Ideal,' Critical Inquiry 8 (1):133.
Art, Truth and Knowledge
Seminar reading: week 5
• Berys Gaut, Art and Cognition (MK)
• Peter Lamarque, Cognitive Values in the Arts: Marking the Boundaries (MK) - Note: references
for both papers are at the end of the Lamarque paper.
Further reading
• Conolly, Oliver and Bashshar Haydar (2007), ‘Literature, Knowledge, and Value’, Philosophy and
Literature 31: 111-124
• Harrison, Bernard (2009), 'Realism,' in Richard Eldridge (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of
Philosophy and Literature. OUP.
• Gibson, John (2009), 'Literature and Knowledge,' in Richard Eldridge (ed.), The Oxford Handbook
of Philosophy and Literature. OUP.
• John, Eileen (1998), ‘Reading Fiction and Conceptual Knowledge: Philosophical Thought in
Literary Context’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56: 221-348
• Lamarque, Peter (2009), 'Poetry and abstract thought,' Midwest Studies in Philosophy 33 (1):3752.
• Lamarque, Peter and Stein H. Olsen (1994), Truth, Fiction, and Literature: A Philosophical
Perspective. OUP.
• Robinson, Jenefer (1995), ‘L’Éducation Sentimentale’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 73:
212-226
• Stolnitz, Jerome (1992), ‘On the Cognitive Triviality of Art’, British Journal of Aesthetics 32: 191200
• Wilson, Catherine (1983), 'Literature and Knowledge,' Philosophy 58 (226): 489 - 496.
Art and moral value
Seminar reading: week 7
• Eileen John, 'Artistic Value and Opportunistic Moralism’ (MK)
• Daniel Jacobson, ‘Ethical Criticism and the Vice of Moderation’ (MK)
You might want to read the Guardian article on The Death of
Klinghoffer: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/21/the-death-of-klinghoffer-panel-artcensor and here's the youtube clip of the trailor for the Met
production: http://youtu.be/FtnXSra0ZYQ
Further reading
• Anderson, James and Jeffrey Dean (1998), ‘Moderate Autonomism’, British Journal of
Aesthetics 38: 150-166
• Carroll, Noël (1996) ‘Moderate Moralism’, British Journal of Aesthetics 36 (1996): 223-238
• Devereaux, Mary (1998) ‘Beauty and Evil: The Case of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will’, in
Jerrold Levinson (ed.), Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press), 227-256
• Eaton, Anne W. (2012), ‘Robust Immoralism’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70: 281-92
• Gaut, Berys (1998), 'The Ethical Criticism of Art,' in Jerrold Levinson (ed.), Aesthetics and Ethics:
Essays at the Intersection (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 182--203.
• Kieran, Matthew (1996), 'Art, imagination, and the cultivation of morals,' Journal of Aesthetics
and Art Criticism 54 (4):337-351.
Fiction and Emotion
Seminar reading: Week 8
• Gendler and Kovakovich, ‘Genuine Rational Fictional Emotions’ (MK)
• Matravers, ‘The Challenge of Irrationalism and How Not to Meet it’ (MK)
Further reading
• Glenn A. Hartz (1999), 'How we can be moved by Anna Karenina, Green Slime, and a Red
Pony,' Philosophy 74 (4):557-578.
• Walton, Kendall L. (1978), 'Fearing fictions,' Journal of Philosophy 75 (1):5-27.
• Neill, Alex (1991), 'Fear, fiction and make-believe' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 49
(1):47-56.
• Peter Lamarque (1981), 'How can we fear and pity fictions?' British Journal of Aesthetics 21
(4):291-304.
• Radford, Colin and Michael Weston (1975), 'How Can We Be Moved by the Fate of Anna
Karenina?' Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 49:67 - 93.
Forgeries, Copies and Appropriation Art
Seminar reading: week 9
• Hick, Darren Hudson (2010), 'Forgery and Appropriation in Art,' Philosophy Compass 5
(12):1047-1056.
• Irvin, Sherri (2005), 'Appropriation and authorship in contemporary art,' British Journal of
Aesthetics 45 (2):123-137.
Also, please read the article and watch the youtube clip: http://www.channel4.com/news/artforgery-beltracchi-wolfgang-ernst-picasso-paraic-obrien
http://www.afterwalkerevans.com/
Further reading
• Dutton, Denis (1979), 'Artistic crimes: The problem of forgery in the arts,' British Journal of
Aesthetics 19 (4):302-314.
• Graham, Gordon (2006), 'Aesthetic empiricism and the challenge of fakes and ready-mades', in
Matthew Kieran (ed.), Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art (Oxford:
Blackwell), 11--21.
• Hick, D. H. (2012), 'Art Forgery: The History of a Modern Obsession,' British Journal of
Aesthetics 52 (4):427-430.
• Lessing, Alfred (1965), 'What is wrong with a forgery?' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 23
(4):461-471.
• Mag Uidhir, Christy (2011), 'Minimal Authorship (of Sorts),' Philosophical Studies 154 (3):373387.
Erotic Art
Seminar reading: Week 10
• Maes, Hans (2011), 'Art or Porn: Clear division or false dilemma?' Philosophy and Literature 35
(1):51-64.
• Zamir, Tzachi (2013), 'Pornography and Acting,' in Hans Maes (ed.), Pornographic Art and the
Aesthetics of Pornography (Palgrave Macmillan).
Further reading
• Kieran, Matthew (2001), 'Pornographic art,' Philosophy and Literature 25 (1):31-45.
• Maes, Hans (2011), 'Drawing the Line: Art versus Pornography,' Philosophy Compass 6 (6):385397.
• Maes, Hans & Levinson, Jerrold (eds.) (2012), Art & Pornography: Philosophical Essays (Oxford:
Oxford University Press).
• Zamir, Tzachi (2013), 'Unethical Acts,' Philosophical Quarterly 63 (251):353-373.
The Science of Aesthetics
• Currie, Gregory (2005), 'Aesthetics and Cognitive Science,' in Jerrold Levinson The Oxford
Handbook of Aesthetics (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
• Davies, David (2014), ‘“This is Your Brain on Art”: What Can Philosophy of Art Learn from
Neuroscience?’ in Currie, Kieran, Meskin and Robson (eds)Aesthetics and The Sciences of
Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 57-74.
• Kamber, Richard (2011). 'Experimental Philosophy of Art,' Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism 69 (2):197-208.
• Meskin, Aaron, Phelan, Mark, Moore, Margaret & Kieran, Matthew (2013), 'Mere Exposure to Bad
Art,' British Journal of Aesthetics 53 (2):139-164.