Foundations of the perceptual model

Reading Group

Where does the idea that aesthetic judgment is about perception or sensation come from? What is the motivation for excluding cognitive or intellectual forms of engagement from the aesthetic? Are there authors who subvert this close tie between aesthetics and the senses? In this reading group we read a variety of authors who have acknowledged intelligible forms of beauty.

Central texts:

• Plotinus, ‘On Beauty’ and ‘On Intellectual Beauty’
• Baumgarten, Aesthetica (fragments)

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Meeting time: Tuesdays 12:30-14:00 (fortnightly)