Kathleen M Higgins

This course offers an introduction to many of the central problems and thinkers in
aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Among the questions we will investigate are: What
is a work of art? Why do human beings create and value art? Is beauty in the eye of the
beholder? Are judgments of taste merely subjective? In addition, we will explore
questions relating to particular forms of art: What is a musical work? Does a literary
work mean what the author intends it to mean? Why do we feel fear in a horror film?
Although you will study what a number of influential historical and contemporary
thinkers have said about these questions, my goal is for you to learn how to approach
them for yourselves. A substantial portion of each class will be devoted to discussion.
Another basic goal of the course is to develop our abilities to reason, converse, and write
about foundational topics.

Prerequisites

Graduate Standing and Consent of Graduate Advisor or instructor required.

Course Description

This course will consider Nietzsche as both a critic of the moral tradition and a positive ethical thinker.  Among the issues to be considered are the following: 1) What is Nietzsche’s immoralism? 2) What implications does genealogy have for morality? 3) What is the point of revaluation of values, and what should come in its wake? 4) What are the implications of the theory of will to power for ethical life? 5) What is Nietzsche’s positive ethical vision? 6) Does Nietzsche think his ethical ideals are humanly attainable? 7) Is Nietzsche a virtue ethicist?

Grading

Term Paper (85%)

Participation (involvement, presentation introducing the topics for one day’s discussion, presentation on one’s term paper research, attendance) (15%)

Texts

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals

Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

This course satisfies the History requirement

Prerequisites

Graduate Standing and Consent of Graduate Advisor or instructor required.

Course Description

This course will consider basic issue in philosophy of emotion and their application to issues in philosophy of the arts, with special (but not exclusive) emphasis on music.  Among the issues to be considered are the following:  What mechanisms are involved in emotional responses to the various arts?  How does art express emotion?  How does emotion contribute to meaning in art?  Should moral considerations restrict our emotional responses to art?  What can we learn from our emotional responses to art?  Why do we enjoy “negative” emotions (horror, sadness) in art?  How does emotional expression relate to emotional arousal?  Can we have real emotional reactions to characters and plots that we know are fictional, and if so, how?  Do emotions require objects? If they do, are there musical emotions?  Can music express cognitively complex emotions?  Are emotional responses to art universal in any sense?

Grading

Term paper: 80%

Participation (including introducing the discussion of particular week’s readings): 20%

Texts

Solomon,  ed., What Is an Emotion?, 2nd ed.    

Hofstadter and Kuhns, Philosophies of Art and Beauty 

Mette Hjort and Sue Laver, eds., Emotion and the Arts 

A packet of articles 

Graduate Standing and Consent of Graduate Advisor or Instructor required.

Description:

This course will consider Nietzsche as both a critic of the moral tradition and a positive ethical thinker.  Among the issues to be considered are the following: 1) What is Nietzsche’s immoralism? 2) What implications does genealogy have for morality? 3) What is the point of revaluation of values, and what should come in its wake? 4) What are the implications of the theory of will to power for ethical life? 5) What is Nietzsche’s positive ethical vision? 6) Does Nietzsche think his ethical ideals are humanly attainable? 7) Is Nietzsche a virtue ethicist?

Grading Policy:

Participation, including introducing one week’s seminar readings:  25%

Term Paper:  75%

Texts:

Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

Nietzsche, Daybreak

Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality

Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Nietzsche, The Gay Science

Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

This course satisfies the History requirement.

This course will consider some of the answers given in the Western philosophical tradition to questions about the nature of art and beauty, with some comparison with perspectives from Japan (and perhaps other societies).  Particular attention will be given to the nature of the aesthetic experience from the standpoint of both the artist and the observer.

TEXTS

Kathleen Marie Higgins, ed., Aesthetics in Perspective

GRADING

Journals on aesthetic experiences               10%

Exam I                                                     20%

Exam II                                                    20%

Short paper                                              20%

Final written project                                   20%

Participation                                             10%

This course will consider major ethical theories in the Western and Chinese philosophical traditions as guides to practical living.  The primary question to be addressed is:  What is the good life for human beings, in theory and in practice?

TEXTBOOKS:

Robert C. Solomon, Clancy W. Martin, and Wayne Vaught, Morality and the Good Life:  An Introduction through Classical Sources (fifth edition)

Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

GRADING

September 7           Case Studies                                             10%

September 23         “Why Be Moral?” letter                               10%

September 28         Exam 1                                                    20%

October 26             Kantian and Utilitarian Dilemma paper         15%

November 4           Exam 2                                                    20%

November 30          Final Project (“Pearls of Wisdom”)             10%

December 2           “Meeting of the Minds” Debate                   5%

                           Participation                                             10%

Description: This goal of this course is for students to participate in a debate that has engaged philosophers and social critics for at least 2,500 years regarding the social benefits and successes, as well as the risks and moral failures of commercial life.  The focus will be the role of business and the modern corporation in American life and the role of the individual (worker, manager, executive, consumer, citizen) in commercial life. We will consider not just the moral challenges and obstacles of modern commercial life, but also its moral opportunities. We will examine the diverse moral complexity of commercial life by exploring topics such as the relationship between market equilibrium and social optimality, the myth of homo economicus, the connection between freedom and capitalism, and the role of business in the attainment of the good life. Some of the philosophical issues will also include some general concerns of ethics with specific application to business, questions of justice, and the virtues and vices of capitalism. Some of the practical business issues will include the concept of corporate social responsibility, the ethical implications of mergers and takeovers, business ethics and the environment, and the ethical role of the consumer.  Theoretical considerations will be augmented by presentations from professionals in the Austin business community whose business practices and social entrepreneurship projects engage and respond to the moral and social issues covered during the course.  The discussion section will be an essential part of the class. The course will try to strike a balance between the practical and the theoretical.

Texts:        

Joanne B. Ciulla, Clancy Martin, and Robert C. Solomon, Hard Work, 2^nd edition (Oxford University Press, 2011)

A packet of articles

Grading: 

3 exams, each worth 25% of the grade

Class participation (including group projects and class activities in the large group classes as well as involvement in the discussion sections) 25%

 “Existentialism” was hardly a philosophical movement in the traditional sense, for few of its major figures would have described themselves as existentialists.  And yet the existentialists do represent a movement in the sense that they sharing certain concerns, such as emphasis on how reflective thought relates to our actual lives, skepticism regarding reason, reevaluation of traditional approaches to ethics, and insistence on passionate engagement as essential for a meaningful life.  Among the figures we will consider are Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, and Simone de Beauvoir.

TEXTBOOKS:        

Albert Camus, The Stranger

Albert Camus, The Fall

Robert C. Solomon, ed. Existentialism, 2^nd edition

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (trans. Martin)

Robert C. Solomon, From Rationalism to Existentialism

Recommended (Optional):

Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness

Robert C. Solomon, Introducing the Existentialists

GRADING:

Exam I                           25%

Exam II                  25%

Exam III                  25%

Participation                  25%

Participation includes a daily journal, attendance, engaged participation in sections, directed journal entries, pop quizzes, and possibly other activities.

COURSE OVERVIEW                 

This course will consider some of the answers given in the Western philosophical tradition to questions about the nature of art and beauty, with some comparison with perspectives from other societies.  Particular attention will be given to the nature of the aesthetic experience from the standpoint of both the artist and the observer.

TEXTS

Kathleen Marie Higgins, ed., Aesthetics in Perspective

GRADING

Journals on aesthetic experiences                      10%

Exam I                                                            20%

Exam II                                                           20%

Short paper                                                      15%

Final written project                                          25%

Participation                                                     10%

Discussions on Fridays.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course will consider major ethical theories in the Western and Chinese philosophical traditions as guides to practical living.  The primary question to be addressed is:  What is the good life for human beings, in theory and in practice?

TEXTBOOKS:

Robert C. Solomon and Clancy W. Martin, and Wayne Vaught, Morality and the Good Life:  An Introduction through Classical Sources (fifth edition)

 Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

GRADING

Case Studies                                                                        10%

“Why Be Moral?” letter                                                          15%

Exam 1                                                                               15%

Kantian and Utilitarian Resolutions to a Movie Dilemma          15%

Exam 2                                                                               15%

Final Project (“Pearls of Wisdom”)                                         15%

Participation in “Meeting of the Minds” final class                      5%

Participation                                                                         10%

The aim of the course is to attain a holistic grasp of Humeʼs philosophy. Philosophy courses are often divided by subject area (metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of mind, and so on). Hume wrote on all the main topics in philosophy, and our goal is not only to evaluate his individual contributions, but also to see how the views on various topics fit together. The class presupposes some knowledge of philosophy, but not of Humeʼs work. 

COURSE:            PHL 317K                    Fall 2009
Introduction to Philosophy of the Arts     
Unique # 43330, 43335, 43340

TIME:        Tuesdays and Thursdays,
        2:00-2:50 p.m., and a third hour

LOCATION:        RAS 213 (TTH 2:00-2:50 p.m.)
& a third hour in WAG 210


           INSTRUCTOR:    Prof. Kathleen Higgins

           OFFICE:        Waggener Hall, Room 203
        471-5564
        
           OFFICE HOURS:    Tuesdays, 3:30-5:30 p.m.

E-MAIL:        kmhiggins@mail.utexas.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION:     This course will consider some of the answers given in the Western philosophical tradition to questions about the nature of art and beauty, with some comparison with perspectives from other societies.  Particular attention will be given to the distinction between art and reality, and the nature of the aesthetic experience from the standpoint of both the artist and the observer.

TEACHING ASSISTANT:      Jenn Neilson

OFFICE:  WAG 229

OFFICE HOURS:  Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1:00-2:00 p.m.

E-MAIL:  <Jenn.neilson@mail.utexs.edu>


TEXTBOOK:             Kathleen Marie Higgins, ed., Aesthetics in Perspective





POLICIES:
Late assignments will automatically receive ten fewer percentage points than they would otherwise have received.  Late assignments will not be accepted more than one week after the date due.  Late assignments will not be accepted after the last day of class.

Makeup exams or extensions will be arranged only in situations of an emergency or serious illness.  The instructor may ask for evidence.

Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities, 471-6259.


GRADING

September 10        Short paper                    10%

September 24        Exam I                        20%

October 8            Journal entries 1-4 due            10%

October 22            Exam II                    20%

November 24        Journal entries 5-9 due            10%

December 1            Final written project                20%

Participation     (includes attendance, participation in final debate)    10%


NO FINAL EXAM
 
SYLLABUS



August 27    Introduction: Why Do We Make Art?

   
September 1        Beauty and Timelessness

Readings:  Plato, “The Form of Beauty” and “Beauty’s Influence” (p. 11-23)


September 3        Where Does (Good) Art Come From?

Readings:  Plato, “Inspiration as Magnetism” (pp. 278-281) and Rilke, “Letters to a Young Poet” (pp. 293-294)


September 8        Plato’s Case against Art

Readings:  Plato,  “Art and Appearance” (pp. 114-121) and Bloom, “Music” (pp. 190-194)



September 10    The Ancient Quarrel between Poetry and Philosophy

Readings:  Alexander Nehamas, “Plato and the Mass Media” (pp. 184-189)

Short Paper Due



September 15    Techne – When Does Art Work, and Why?

Reading:  Aristotle, “The Form of a Tragedy” (pp. 24-30) and Aristotle, “Constructing a Tragedy” (pp. 282-283)


September 17    Why Do We Enjoy Seeing Tragedy?

Reading: Friedrich Nietzsche, “Apollo and Dionysus” (pp. 58-62)


September 22     Closure and the Lack Thereof

Reading:  Mark Crispin Miller, “Advertising – End of Story” (pp. 350-358)


September 24    Exam I


September 29    Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder? 

Reading:  David Hume, “Of the Standard of Taste” (pp. 31-43)

October 1         Aesthetic Experience (Kant)

Reading:  Immanuel Kant, “The Four Moments” (pp. 44-48)

October 6        Universality and Beauty

Reading:  Immanuel Kant, “The Four Moments” (pp. 48-53)


October 8        Art and Intelligibility

Reading:  Immanuel Kant, “The Nature of Genius” (pp. 284-286)

Journal accounts of experiences of types 1-4 due



October 11         Art through History

Reading: G. W. F. Hegel, “The Ages of Art (pp. 446-450)


October 13        Art and the Times

Reading: Arthur Danto, “Approaching the End of Art”  (pp. 454-460); John Berger, “Oil Painting” (pp. 464-466)


October 20          Review

       
October 22         EXAM II


October 27        What Is Art? – The Contemporary Question

Reading:  Arthur Danto, “Approaching the End of Art”  (pp. 454-460)


October 29         Why is it art?  (Should “art” be an honorific?)

Reading: Binkley, “Piece – Contra Aesthetics” (pp. 88-97), and Tom Wolfe, “The Worship of Art:  Notes on the New God” (pp. 246-250)


November 3        The Social Function of Art

Readings: Leo Tolstoy, “What Is Art?” (pp. 362-364), and Douglas Stalker and Clark Glymour, “The Malignant Object:  Thoughts on Public Sculpture” (pp. 259-264)


November 5         Immorality in Art

Reading: Liza Mundy, “The New Critics” (p. 213-221)


November 10         The Problem of Art and Stereotypes

Readings: Robert Gooding-Williams, “Look, A Negro!” (pp. 530-538) and Noël Carroll, “The Image of Women in Film” (pp. 567-574)


November 12    Emotion in Aesthetic Experience – Art and the Everyday

Reading: John Dewey, “Aesthetic Qualities” (pp. 611-616)


November 17    Japanese Aesthetics

Readings:  Sei Shonagon, “The Pillow Book” (pp. 617-619) and Garret Sokoloff, “By Pausing before a Kicho,” (pp. 620-627)


    November 19    Japanese Aesthetics, Part II
Reading: Donald Keene, “Japanese Aesthetics” (pp. 678-687) and Yuriko Saito, “The Japanese Appreciation of Nature” (pp. 140-147)

           

    November 24     Poetry in Everyday Speech

Reading:  Anna Deveare Smith, “Introduction to Fires in the Mirror” (pp. 639-646)  

Journal accounts of experiences of types 5-9 due

   
November 26     Thanksgiving





December 1         Art, Revelation, and Happiness

    Reading:  Walter Pater, “A Quickened Sense of Life” (pp. 160-163), and Karsten Harries, “The Ethical Significance of Modern Art” (pp. 195-204)

Long Writing Assignment Due


December 3        Final Debate:  Does Art Make Us Better People (and If So, How)?

COURSE:    Introduction to Ethics                     Fall 2009
PHL 318        Unique # 43345, 43350, 43355

TIME:         Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00-11:50 a.m., and a third hour
       
LOCATION:    UTC 3.124 (TTH from 11:00-11:50a.m.), third hour in WAG 210

INSTRUCTOR:    Prof. Kathleen Higgins

OFFICE:        Waggener Hall, Room 203
        471-5564
        
OFFICE HOURS:    Tuesdays, 3:30-5:30 p.m.

E-MAIL:        kmhiggins@mail.utexas.edu


TEACHING ASSISTANT:    Jeremy Evans

    OFFICE:  WAG  411

OFFICE HOURS:  Tuesdays, 12:00 noon – 2:00 p.m.


COURSE DESCRIPTION:        This course will consider several major ethical theories in the Western and Chinese philosophical traditions as guides to practical living.  The primary question to be addressed is:  What is the good life for human beings, in theory and in practice?
   

COURSE OBJECTIVES:    By the end of this course you should:

1.  Be familiar with the basic tenets of the ethical theories considered.

2.  Be able to compare these positions and to discuss the approach the specific theories would take to given ethical problems in short essays.

3.  Be able to define basic terms (such as "consequentialism," "ethical relativism," etc.) and to relate them to the ethical positions considered.

4.  Be able to identify and evaluate your own ethical position, or at least be aware of areas in which this position is ill defined.




TEXTBOOKS:    Robert C. Solomon, Clancy W. Martin, and Wayne Vaught, eds., Morality and the Good Life:  An Introduction through Classical Sources (fifth edition)

Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

POLICIES:
Late assignments will automatically receive ten fewer percentage points than they would otherwise have received.  Late assignments will not be accepted more than one week after the date due.  Late assignments will not be accepted after the last day of class.

Makeup exams or extensions will be arranged only in situations of an emergency or serious illness.  The instructor may ask for evidence.

Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities, 471-6259.

IMPORTANT DATES AND GRADING


September 8        Case Studies                    5%
September 24    Exam 1                    15%
September 29    “Why Be Moral?” letter            10%
October 22        Exam 2                    15%
November 3         Kantian and Utilitarian Dilemma paper    15%
November 19    Exam 3                    15%
December 1         Final Project (“Pearls of Wisdom”)    10%
December 3        “Meeting of the Minds” Debate        5%
            Participation                    10%

   
 
Syllabus


Page numbers refer to Morality and the Good Life, 5th edition, unless otherwise noted.

August 27            Introduction
   
September 1        Plato's Socrates and Civil Disobedience (pp. 68-80)

September 3        Gyges' Ring and Ethical Egoism (pp. 81-99)

September 8        Plato's Forms (pp. 99-104)

            CASE STUDIES DUE

September 10    Aristotle's Naturalism (pp. 106-122)

September 15    Aristotle on Virtue (pp. 123-136)

September 17    Aristotle's Conception of the Happy Life (pp. 136-146)
       
September 22     Review

September 24    EXAM I

September 29    Feminism and Virtue Ethics (Mary Wollstonecraft)
            (pp. 23-25 and 314-322)

“WHY BE MORAL?” LETTER DUE

October 1        Hume on Sentiment and Ethics  (pp. 211-227)
       
October 6        More on Hume; Background on Kant (pp. 259-267)

October 8        Kant on Duty (pp. 267-281)
             
October 13         The Categorical Imperative (pp. 281-301)

October 15        Criticisms of Kant (pp. 301-312)


October 20          Review

October 22         EXAM II

October 27        Introduction to Utilitarianism (pp. 323-347)

October 29         Mill's Defense against Critics (pp. 347-360)
       
November 3        Other Criticisms of Utilitarianism (pp. 360-378)

KANTIAN AND UTILITARIAN RESOLUTIONS TO A MOVIE DILEMMA DUE

November 5         Nietzsche vs. Traditional Morality   
                        (pp. 380-392, and 406-410)

November 10     Master and Slave Moralities (pp. 392-405)

November 12    Nietzsche's Affirmative Vision and Kundera’s

                Reading:  The Unbearable Lightness of Being

November 17      Kundera, Kitsch, and Review

November 19    EXAM III

November 24         Confucian Role Ethics (56-62)

November 26     Thanksgiving

December 1         Daoist Ethics (pp. 62-66)
   
                FINAL PROJECT DUE   

December 3        ”MEETING OF THE MINDS” DEBATE

Prerequisites

Graduate Standing and Consent of Graduate Advisor or instructor required.

Prerequisites

Graduate Standing and Consent of Graduate Advisor or instructor required.

Course Description

Hellenistic philosophy, that is of the period between the death of Aristotle and (traditionally at least) 31 BC, was for centuries unjustly neglected. Over the past thirty years or so much has been done to remedy that neglect, and the distinctive schools of the period (Epicurean, Stoic, Academic, Pyrrhonian) are now recognized as continuing much of enduring and intrinsic interest. Study of the period is hampered by the fact that, with rare exceptions, their works are known only through later citations and attestations, which complicates the process of interpretation. But it is still a project well worthwhile. This course will examine key ideas and arguments from all of these schools, and the contributions they made (and debates they engaged in) concerning epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, logic and mind (among other things).

Grading

1 term paper (90%)

participation and/or presentation (10%)

Texts

A.A. Long, D.N. Sedley The Hellenistic Philosophers Vol. 1 (1987)

   Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521275563

This course satisfied the History requirement.