Philosophy and the Arts

What are the differences between illusions, lies and artistic fictions? Are beauty and ugliness really in objects or only in the eye of the beholder? These and other questions will take us from the origins of aesthetics in ancient and Enlightenment philosophy to current issues in art. We will examine the ideas of mimesis and appearance, the problems of taste and aesthetic judgment, and the relation of aesthetic attitudes to other forms of human thought and action in ancient writers such as Plato and Aristotle, 18th century authors such as David Hume and Immanuel Kant, and contemporary philosophers such as Monroe Beardsley, George Dickie and Kendall Walton.