Aesthetics of Modernity
Term:
Fall 2008
Subject Code:
GPHI
Course Number:
6095
The course will deal with two phases of modern aesthetics that at first view seem to bear no direct relation: in its first part with debates in the 18th century, prior to Kant, and in its second part with contemporary debates, after Adorno. Thus the first part of the course aims at a historical reconstruction of the original impulse for the development of the new philosophical discipline of aesthetics which can be seen in the concept of �force� (over against �capacity�). We will discuss texts by Leibniz, Baumgarten, Herder, Burke, Mendelssohn, with an outlook on Kant and Nietzsche. In the second part of the course we will discuss texts by Agamben, Danto, Derrida, Luhmann, Deleuze, Ranci�re in order to reflect the contemporary interpretation, and relevance, of the originary ideas of philosophical aesthetics.
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