PHIL 237 What Does a Work of Art Mean? (Not offered 2008-2009)
According to myth, the Philosopher's Stone could turn iron into gold. According to this course, even more amazing is that configurations of colored paint or sound waves or ink stains can be turned into art, music, and literature. How is that a work of art can have a meaning? What does it mean for a work of art to have a meaning? Must a work of art have a meaning? Is the meaning of art similar to, or different from, the meaning of language?
We will examine works of visual art, such as Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q., works of music, such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong's 1961 recording of "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," and works of literature such as Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire. We will read such philosophers as Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Arthur Danto, Nelson Goodman, and Catherine Elgin. Most of the art we investigate and most of the philosophers we read will be from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Format: seminar with some lectures. Requirements: frequent imaginative short assignments and a final project.
No prerequisites; open to first years. Enrollment limit: 30 (expected: 20). Preference given to seniors and juniors.
GERRARD