Lecture Notes
 Spring 2004

Interpretation (January 22, 2004)
What's with this stupid bicycle wheel? 

Definitions of Art (January 29, 2004)
What facts about this object are relevant to its being a work of art?

Value of Art (February 5, 2004)
What is particularly valuable about works of art?

Postmodernism (February 12, 2004)
Isn't this all so "modern" that we're beyond it now?
Here are Mary Klages' notes on the same topic.

Taste (February 19, 2004)
Hey, it's whatever you like. Or is it? Hume on Taste 

Beauty (February 26, 2004)
If it's in the eye of the beholder, why do you point it out to me?

Imagination (March 4, 2004)
Addison's famous essay on imagination 

Expression and Emotion (March 11, 2004)
Don't you think that Duchamp's "Bicycle Wheel" is rather sad?

Art and Ethics (March 25, 2004)
What do you mean, John Donne's poem is flawed?

Fakes and Forgeries (April 14, 2004)
Is that the REAL "Bicycle Wheel" in that picture?

Film (April 21, 2004)
Two thumbs up? 

Photography (April 28, 2004)
It may be a photo of Duchamp's "Bicycle Wheel," but what does it depict?

Music (May 6, 2004)  (Click here to read Hanslick's argument)
"I hate music. It's got too many notes."--The Replacements

Last updated Dec. 28, 2007