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Rob van Gerwen

November 07, 2022

Outline How to News? Begrippen
Rob van Gerwen, Ph.D.

Art and Morality

Literature course (WB2BL0001, WB3BL0001, WBMV06001)
2015

First: make a print

Before anything else, make a print of this page.
As literature courses are an ongoing affair, changes to them will, also, be made continuously.
As a result, you may be working on the basis of a course description that, recently, became obsolete. Whenever the website description changes there is no way for you to retrieve the older version that you used when enlisting.
Hence my advice: make a print at the very moment that you decide to enlist.

First: make a print

Before anything else, make a print of this page.
As literature courses are an ongoing affair, changes to them will, also, be made continuously.
As a result, you may be working on the basis of a course description that, recently, became obsolete. Whenever the website description changes there is no way for you to retrieve the older version that you used when enlisting.
Hence my advice: make a print at the very moment that you decide to enlist.

Outline
Institute Department of Philosophy
Credit Points 7,5 ECTS
Osiris Code Handed out upon finishing the course (contact the teacher)
Level WB2BL0001, WB3BL0001, WBMV06001
Prerequisites Either Ingang in de filosofie van de kunsten (WY2V14023) or Het Schone: filosofie van de kunsten (esthetica) (WY2V14017), or an adequate alternative.
Period Any period, assuming that beforehand dates of beginning and finishing the course are agreed upon.
Language Dutch or English
Hirsts shark

The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living.

Damien Hirst - 1991.

Contents the subject of the literature-module Art and Morality is the question whether, or not, we can morally judge works of art. The compulsory reading for the module consists of two books and a couple of articles. The literature is divided over six subthemes. (Click the Manual-button above for more details).
Examination Examination takes place through regular meetings with the teacher regarding the writings of the student. The student is supposed to study a subtheme and submit a paper about it. Before heading on with the next paper contact is required with the teacher.
2 (level 2): six small papers of approx. 3 pages
3 (level 3): five small papers and one larger, synthesising final paper
M (Masters): same as level 3, but add another paper processing the additional literature
Compulsory literature Levinson, Jerrold. 1998. Aesthetics and Ethics. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Davies, Stephen, ed. 1997. Art and its Messages. Meaning, Morality and Society. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. A few articles.
At Masters level the readings include an additional 100-200 pages literature chosen by the student, in concurrence with the teacher.
Contact Dr. R.C.H.M. van Gerwen
Make an appointment with the teacher: rob.vangerwen AT uu.nl
Teacher Dr. Rob van Gerwen

Manual

Levels

Level 2

Students who take this course at level 2, write six two-page papers, 1000 words each.

Level 3

Students who take this course at level 3, write five two-page papers, and one longer paper, of max. 2000 words. This longer paper addresses all or most of the issues presented in the literature, in an effort to summarize or synthesize the debates.
Before writing this paper a proposal for it is to be submitted, specifying the philosophical problem that is to be addressed, the thesis to be defended about it, and the strategy followed for its defense.

Level Masters

Students who take this course at Masters level, follow the Level 3 approach, and write an added 7th paper, of max. 2000 words. This second long paper connects arguments developed in the 6th paper to arguments derived from extra readings chosen by the student in concurrence with the teacher.

Submitting your work

Students submit their work digitally in Word-doc (or docx), attached to an E-mail. Name the file as follows:
[surname]_artandmorality_1.docx (or 2, etc.)

Texts for this course

Most of the articles are collected in these two books (compulsory reading):

Levinson, Jerrold. 1998. Aesthetics and Ethics. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Davies, Stephen, ed. 1997. Art and its Messages. Meaning Morality and Society. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.


Some of the extra papers can be downloaded through these pages (contact the teacher for your login data), or via the University Library. This is done best from a location at the UU, or via this link from any other location. (You shall need a 'PDF-reader', such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader. Available as free download.)

At M-level, students propose an extra 100-200 pages of relevant literature after consulting with the teacher.

Examination

Examination takes place through regular meetings about six small papers of approx. 2 pages (level 2), or five small papers and one larger synthesizing endpaper (level 3), or, lastly, or five small papers and two larger endpapers (M level).
The student is supposed to study each of the sub themes in sequence, and submit a paper about it. Before heading on with the next paper, you may want to contact the teacher.

Hirsts shark

The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living.

Damien Hirst - 1991.

Six sub themes

1. DISINTERESTEDNESS, FORMALISM

Kant, Immanuel. 1987 (1790). Critique of Judgement (Kritik der Urteilskraft). Translated by Werner S. Pluhar. Indianapolis and Cambridge (Berlin und Libau): Hackett Publishing Company (Lagarde und Friederich). §§ 1 through 17. _________. 1974. Kritik der Urteilskraft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp (A-first edition: Berlin, Libau 1790; B-second edition: Berlin, 1793). §§ 1 through 17. Goodman, Nelson. 1978. “When is Art?” In Ways of Worldmaking, 57-70. Indianapolis: Hackett. Gerwen, Rob van. 2001. “On Exemplary Art as the Symbol of Morality. Making Sense of Kant’s Ideal of Beauty.” In Kant und die Berliner Aufklärung. Akten des IX. Kant Kongresses, Volume 3, 553-62. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter. download

Further reading?

Derrida, Jacques. 2000. “The Parergon.” In The Continental Aesthetics Reader, edited by Clive Cazeaux, 412–28. London and New York: Routledge. (oorspr. in La Vérité en Peinture, Paris, 1968.)

2. THE PLACE OF THE WORK OF ART, AND OF ITS BEHOLDER

Feagin, Susan L. 1997. “Paintings and their Places.” In Art and its Messages. Meaning Morality and Society, edited by Stephen Davies, 17-25. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. Gerwen, R. v. (2001) "Installaties: Alledaags of Artistiek?". Jaarboek voor esthetica 2000. Rotterdam, Nederlands Genootschap voor Esthetica. (download (192K). Contact the teacher if you need a non-Dutch equivalent). Gerwen, R. v. (2002) "De eigen Ruimte van een kunstwerk" Jaarboek voor Esthetica 2002. Nederlands Genootschap voor Esthetica, 2002, 37-55. (download (92K). Contact the teacher if you need a non-Dutch equivalent).

3. AUTONOMISM, PROPAGANDA, AND FICTIONAL ASSENT

Devereaux, Mary. 1998. “Beauty and Evil: The Case of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumf of the Will.” In Aesthetics and Ethics, edited by Jerrold Levinson, 227-56. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. David Hume: "Of the Standard of Taste" (1757)22 (§§ 32 e.v.). Walton, Kendall. 1994. “Morals in Fiction and Fictional Morality.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society supplementary volume 68:27-50. Reprinted 2002. In Arguing about art. Contemporary Philosophical Debates. Second edition, edited by Alex Neill and Aron Ridley, 339-57. London: Routledge.

Extra reading on this subject

Gerwen, Rob van. 2004. “Pornografie en propaganda in de kunst.” In Transgressie in de kunst. Jaarboek voor esthetica 2004, edited by Bart Vandenabeele en Koen Vermeir, 129-36. Budel: DAMON.

4. MORALISM, ETHICISM, ETHICAL AUTONOMISM

Anderson, J. C., and J. T. Dean. 1998. “Moderate Autonomism.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 38:150-66. Carroll, Noël. 1996. “Moderate Moralism.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 36:223-38. Gaut, Berys. 1998. “The Ethical Criticism of Art.” In Aesthetics and Ethics, edited by Jerrold Levinson, 182-203. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Gerwen, Rob van. 2004. “Ethical Autonomism. The Work of Art as a Moral Agent.” Contemporary Aesthetics 2.

Extra reading on this subject

Carroll, Noël. 1998. “Moderate Moralism versus Moderate Autonomism.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 38:419-24. (UB: Omega) Conolly, O. 2000. “Ethicism and Moderate Moralism.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 40:302-16. (UB: Omega)

5. MORALITY IN/OF NARRATIVE ART

Kieran, Matthew. 2001. “In Defence of the Ethical Evaluation of Narrative Art.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 41:26-38. (UB: Omega) Conolly, O., and B. Haydar. 2001. “Narrative Art and Moral Knowledge.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 41:109-24. (UB: Omega) Currie, Gregory. 1997. “The Moral psychology of Fiction.” In Art and its Messages, edited by Stephen Davies, 49-58. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Robinson, Jenefer. 1997. “Léducation Sentimentale.” In Art and its Messages. Meaning Morality and Society, edited by Stephen Davies, 34-48. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Extra reading on this subject

Carroll, Noël. 1998. “Art, Narrative, and Moral Understanding.” In Aesthetics and Ethics, edited by Jerrold Levinson, 126-60. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Currie, Gregory. 1998. “Realism of Character and the Value of Fiction.” In Aesthetics and Ethics, edited by Jerrold Levinson, 161-81. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.

6. CENSORSHIP

Devereaux, Mary. 1993. “Protected Space: Politics, Censorship, and the Arts.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 51:2:207–15. "http://www.jstor.org/stable/431387" Shusterman, Richard. 1984. “Aesthetic Censorship: Censoring Art for Art’s Sake.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 43:171–80. "http://www.jstor.org/stable/429991"

Extra reading on this subject

Goldblatt, David. 1984. “Self-Plagiarism.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 43:71–77. http://www.jstor.org/stable/430193