BASS Politics and Sociology / Course details

This course unit will cover a selection of topics in contemporary philosophical aesthetics, as well as exploring some of the points of contact between aesthetics, ethics and the philosophy of language. We will consider how to understand some distinctive aesthetic experiences, such as awe, amusement, horror, and the experience of the uncanny. We will discuss the nature of fictional representation and, in particular, examine some of the ways in which a fiction's representational content relies on far more than, e.g., the words on the page or the images on screen. This will enable us to consider some questions about the ethics of representation, such as: What is an offensive joke? If I like to make my character do terrible things when I play a video game, does my behaviour deserve criticism? How  secure is the distinction between an extremely violent film that trivialises violence and an  extremely violent film that implicitly critiques the representation of violence? And when, if ever, does the choice to perform a role amount to an endorsement of the actions we are representing?

The unit aims to: 

– introduce students to a range of topics in philosophical aesthetics, including some cutting-edge contemporary research in the area; 

– give students an opportunity to reflect analytically on some of the ways in which people can engage with and respond to artworks.

Lectures (20 hours): delivery of content. 

Tutorials (10 hours): small group discussion will facilitate student engagement. 

Office Hours: students will have access to the course convenor through regular office hours. 

VLE: learning materials (reading lists, lecture slides, etc.) available online (asynchronous). 

Essay Plans: students will be encouraged to submit essay plans for formative feedback.

-Demonstrate a detailed understanding of some of the questions and ideas within philosophical aesthetics. 

-Clearly articulate some of the arguments covered in the unit.

-Evaluate claims and arguments in philosophical aesthetics. 

-Engage analytically and critically with some of the questions and ideas covered in the unit. 

-Form a justified position and argue for it in writing. 

-Select, adapt, and organise philosophical ideas in response to the particular emphases of a specific question.

- Read and understand relevant texts and arguments.

-Apply theoretical knowledge to complex issues. 

-Plan and implement independent research on a topic from the course. 

There will be an opportunity to receive formative feedback on an essay plan before submission of your coursework essay.

The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate fora is it possible for us to feed back on the student’s work.

We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lectures); and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

The following reading list is indicative, and students are not required to read all the publications listed.

-Craig Bourne & Emily Caddick Bourne (2022) ‘Elusive Fictional Truth’, British Journal of Aesthetics 62: 15-31. 

-Edmund Burke (1958 [1757]), A Philosophical Discourse into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and the Beautiful, e.d. J.T. Boulton, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 

-John Dyck & Matt Johnson (2017) ‘Appreciating Bad Art’, Journal of Value Inquiry 51: 279-292. 

-Kathleen Marie Higgins (2009) ‘Kitsch’ in Stephen Davies, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Robert Hopkins, Robert Stecker & David E. Cooper (eds.) A Companion to Aesthetics (second edition), Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp.393-396. 

-Tsin Yen Koh (2021) ‘Bad Jokes and Good Taste: An Essay on Bentham’s “Auto-Icon”’, Revue D’Études Benthamiennes 20. 

-Morgan Luck (2009) ‘The Gamer’s Dilemma: An Analysis of the Arguments for the Moral Distinction between Virtual Murder and Virtual Paedophilia’, Ethics and Information Technology 11: 31-36. 

-Mark Windsor (2019) ‘What is the Uncanny?’, British Journal of Aesthetics 59: 51-65.