Philosophy 110

This course will be about two related things: the nature of aesthetic judgments, such as the judgment that something is beautiful, and the nature of art. Questions we will explore include: Do aesthetic judgments make any claim to objectivity? What is art? Why is it important? What is aesthetic experience? How do we interpret and evaluate artworks? Aesthetic judgments can be made about many things besides artworks, such as natural objects and events (e.g. animals, sunsets) and décor. What, then—if anything—does art have to do with such judgments in the first place?