Professor David A. Salomon, Spring 2002
Office: Jonas 103A
Office Phone: 642-6249
E-mail: davidsalomon@bhsu.edu
Office Hours: MWF 2-3pm, T 10-11, and by appointment

This seminar in aesthetics addresses several basic questions: what is art? what is beauty? how can we judge it? The term "art" itself is problematic, and that is the first issue we will tackle. We will focus–for most of the semester–on painting, but we will often foray into other areas, including: music, sculpture, performance art, film, music video, and anything else that strikes our fancy. We will deal almost exclusively with the West, although occasional journeys to the East may occur. We are not concerned only with "things" that are beautiful, but we will come to focus on that which is "aesthetically interesting."

The primary goal of this seminar is to acquaint you with philosophical puzzles, problems, and suggestions encountered in art and aesthetics. Aesthetics, roughly speaking, is a discipline devoted to critical reflection about art and the nature of the aesthetic experience and how we might understand them. We will accomplish this through rigorous reading and intelligent and informed writing. That said, the field of aesthetics may not even exist–the term was only really coined in the mid-18th century. That will be one of our early "problems."

Discussion will be challenging, and all members of the seminar are expected to contribute. We will do close readings of a wide variety of philosophical texts, spending the majority of our time in the twentieth century and the present. When possible we will focus on a particular work of art in class and apply the reading to that piece. This is not a course in art history, although some background in that area will only be a help.

Some of the work we look at and listen to over the course of the semester may contain violence, nudity, sex, and/or foul language. The respective artists have considered these elements integral to the development of their work, and we therefore accept their artistic vision.

Seminar Requirements: Class Participation

• Two 7-9 page papers; topics to be discussed (the second paper involves the optional text you choose–either Foucault or Breton)
• Two 3-4 page critiques (one of these must be a critique of one of the films shown on campus this semester: see the link from the seminar’s home page); these are due at any point in the semester, but no more than one critique may submitted at a time; a third critique may be submitted for extra credit
• One longer (12-15 page) seminar paper; topics to be discussed
• Midterm Examination (due Monday, March 4–details below)
• Final Examination

• Aesthetics, ed. Feagin and Maynard (Oxford UP)
• Arthur C. Danto, After the End of Art (Princeton UP)
• Hugh Bredin and Liberato Santoro-Brienza, Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Introducing Aesthetics (Edinburgh UP)
• The Art Book (Phaidon Press)–please bring this book to every seminar meeting
• Mary Acton, Learning to Look at Paintings (Routledge)

Choose One:

• Michel Foucault, This is Not a Pipe (U Ca P)
• Andre Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism (U of Michigan P)

• Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art (Addison-Wesley)

Every seminar member will write one longer paper of twelve to fifteen pages. The paper topics will be discussed ahead of time, and each member's individual topic must be preapproved. The longer papers will be handled in true seminar style. We will follow Cambridge University's "tripos" system. This system, developed in the earliest days of the university system in the Middle Ages, is named after the three-legged stool on which students would sit when being questioned by their examiners. We will dispense with the stool but proceed with the system in theory.

On predetermined seminar meetings we will address the longer paper of one member of the seminar. That member will be responsible for distributing his or her paper to every member of the seminar (including the instructor) at least two days prior to the discussion of the paper–this can be done either on paper or via e-mail (Microsoft Word documents only, please; a link will be placed on the home page from which you can easily send papers to the entire seminar). Monday papers must be out by noon Friday; Wednesday papers by noon Monday; Friday papers by noon Wednesday. Seminar members will scrutinize the paper, and, at the beginning of the seminar meeting, a "wrangler" will be appointed by the instructor. It is for that student--the wrangler--to begin discussion by critiquing the paper and questioning its author (for perhaps 10 minutes). The wrangler's "job" is to spur discussion by all seminar members, to raise interesting points, to debate spurious claims, to both praise and criticize inadequacies. Both the wrangler and the wranglee, if you will, will be graded on their performance. Once the discussion is complete, the author will have three weeks to revise the paper and resubmit it along with the original to the instructor.

Dealing With Sources and Format:

An extensive links page is located at the seminar’s home page. Here you will find (among other things) sites with extensive collections of online art. You will undoubtedly need to integrate some images into your papers. If you use online images, you can use the color printer in the library (.15 per page). You can also copy color images from books at the Printing Center in the basement of Woodburn (.32 per page); however, the color copier in the Printing Center is unreliable. You can also color copy at Sand Creek Printing (128 East Illinois in Spearfish) for .75 per page. Of course, an excellent source is also The Art Book; if you use images from this book, you can refer to them in your paper (clearly) and refer the reader to the relevant page in the book.

Images from the Internet or other books should be clearly documented and included with your paper as appendices and should be referred to within your paper as "appendix one," etc. It is vitally important that seminar members be able to see the images you are discussing. You will need to figure out the best way to insure that.

Since this is an upper level class, there are certain reasonable expectations about your ability to write essays and papers in a scholarly manner. Any work that is turned in should be well-researched, properly-documented, spell-checked, proofread, grammatically correct, and compositionally-sound. Noteworthy and irritating lapses in writing will affect grades. Issues that arise should be dealt with in one of three ways: through consultation of A Short Guide to Writing About Art; through consultation with the instructor; or through consultation with the on-campus Writing Center. All work is to be typed, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, and properly formatted and documented. Papers must be handed in on time. Papers handed in late will receive a one grade deduction for each class/meeting it is late. If deadlines weren’t important, they wouldn’t begin with "dead."

Attendance: Students are expected to attend class regularly. It is your presence that makes this course a seminar; without you the seminar will suffer. If you miss more than three class meetings, you will fail the seminar. Lateness will have a similar effect. If you are sick or have an emergency which forces you to miss more than two consecutive classes, call the Office of Student Affairs and let them know. This way, they will contact all of your instructors, and you might not be held accountable for those absences. Don't disappear for two weeks and then reappear, expecting everything to be all right.

Plagiarism is the theft of someone else's ideas and work. Plagiarism is the most serious crime in academia and will not be tolerated. The word "plagiarism" is derived from the Latin plagarius, which means, literally, "to kidnap"; when you plagiarize you are kidnaping someone else’s baby, stealing their offspring, i.e., their ideas. Whether a student copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly acknowledging the source, the theft is the same. In the preparation of work submitted to meet seminar requirements, whether a draft or a final version of a paper, project, or computer program, students must take great care to distinguish their own ideas and language from information derived from sources. Sources include published primary and secondary materials, the Internet, and information and opinions gained directly from other people. Whenever ideas or facts are derived from a student's reading and research, the sources must be properly cited. The instructor will use the University subscription to turnitin.com when necessary.

It is the student's responsibility to learn the proper forms of citation according to standards delineated by Black Hills State University. Students who have questions about the standards of scholarly writing should speak with their instructors before beginning research on assigned papers and projects. Violations include, at the discretion of the instructor, failure for the individual paper to failure for the seminar; such violations may be entered in the student’s permanent academic record, and upon multiple offenses the Dean may recommend expulsion from the University.

You must, in every instance, give credit for ideas that are not your own. If you are unclear about the meaning of plagiarism, see the instructor. Technical matters (of documentation and format) can be resolved by consultation of The MLA Handbook for Writers (5^th edition) available both in the BHSU bookstore and in the library.

A Note About Research and Sources:

Secondary sources are not necessary for the critiques; however, they are not only required but are necessary for the longer paper. Other than as a source for art work (and for referral to other sources), use online sources sparingly, if at all (a good rule of thumb: for every one online source, you should have two "traditional" sources). This does not include use of online journal databases (such as ProQuest, SearchBank, or JSTOR), online bibliographic information and databases, nor does it include the use of primary sources and art one may find on the Internet. You will undoubtedly need to make use of interlibrary loan. You can easily request materials on interlibrary loan from the SDLN catalogue page by clicking the "Submit ILL Request" blue button on the catalogue entry page. Of course, your seminar texts can serve as sources as well, and they probably make good starting places.

Perhaps two of your most valuable sources will be two items in the BHSU reference collection. In general, dictionaries and encyclopedias are not acceptable sources–these two items are the exceptions to that rule. Both provide excellent articles and, more importantly, excellent and current bibliographies.

-Dictionary of Art: this 34 volume encyclopedia remains the standard in the field (it was updated in 1996; thanks go to Dr. Larsen and her department for purchasing this set for the University): Reference Collection N31 .D5 1996

-Encyclopedia of Aesthetics: this 4 volume set published in 1998 provides good introductory articles: Reference Collection BH56 .E53 1998

You should get into the habit of looking at one or more of the following journals, periodicals, and newspapers (all are received in the BHSU Library). They publish important articles in the world of art and aesthetics. Of course, there are many more, but these are a few that our library currently receives.

• -The New York Times (Sunday edition, especially the Arts and Leisure section, the Book Review, and the Sunday Magazine; the Review and Magazine are kept in the current periodicals section)
• -American Artist
• -ArtForum
• -New Art Examiner
• -Smithsonian

Special Accommodation: Reasonable accommodations, as arranged with the disabilities coordinator, will be provided for students with documented disabilities. Please contact the BHSU Disabilities Services Coordinator at 642-6099.

Getting in touch: You can always reach me by e-mail. I check it several times a day. My e-mail address is davidsalomon@bhsu.edu. Please do not abuse e-mail with excuses ("I won’t be in class today"), but do use e-mail for questions and advice.

The World Wide Web (WWW) address for this class is http://www.bhsu.edu/artssciences/asfaculty/dsalomon/phil490/spring2002/

At this site you will find links to primary sources, extensive online art sites, bibliographic information, this syllabus, a seminar e-mail directory, and other important information. It will be updated occasionally.

Grading Guidelines: If you are enrolled in this seminar to get a grade, drop now. Education is about more than grades. Unfortunately, grades are a necessary evil. Your work will be graded on a scale from A to F with pluses and minuses. Although BHSU does not use pluses and minuses in semester grades, I believe they are helpful in evaluation throughout the semester. If, at the end of the semester, your grade is teetering between two grades, attendance and class participation become important factors.

A range: The work is extraordinary. It has said something different or is conceived in an interesting and unusual way. Written work is virtually free of errors in writing or fact. Conventionally, an "A" means the work is perfect.

B range: The work is above average. It presents the material more than competently and is well-written and well-organized.

C range: The work is average. Written work might have some problems in construction, grammar, or conception. Organizational problems may also be present as may some misunderstandings of the texts or topics.

D range: The work is below average. Written work probably has serious problems in grammar and organization. It might show severe misunderstandings of the texts or topics.

F: The work is failing. Written work probably has severe problems in basic grammar and shows little or no understanding of the texts or topics. Note: a grade of F is an earned grade and will not be awarded if work is not submitted or completed (that type of performance "earns" a 0).