Until recently, it was customary to regard Kant as the thinker who definitively separated aesthetic knowledge from the domains of reason and morality by identifying its core epistemological activity as a kind of judgment that he qualified as a matter of taste. The postmodern rejection of the “modernist” practice of aesthetic theory, however, has done much to undermine Kant’s position in both the arts and in philosophy. This course aims to re-examine Kant’s aesthetic theory as set out in his Critique of Judgment of 1790 from the vantage point of the art theoretical literature that preceded it vis a vis the integral place of the aesthetic in both premodern ethics and theology. In an effort to better understand Kant’s contribution to the history of thought about art and its purposes, it will seek to contextualize such “Kantian” themes as judgment, taste, genius, beauty, sublimity and purposiveness. It will also consider to what degree our understanding of Kant has been shaped by later modernist assumptions about the character of his contribution.
ICS 120107 / 220107 F23
ICH3761H / ICH6761H L6201*
Remote (Online Synchronous)
Wednesdays, 10am - 1pm ET
(MWS, MA, PhD)
Enrolment Notes:
To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 15 (Note that the first class for this course takes place on September 13). Maximum enrolment of nine (9) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.
*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program.
