Posted: Dec 22, 2011 11:43 pm
I am in a philosophy discussion group and, because the presenter for the next meeting had to drop out at short notice, I now am scheduled to present in their place on the topic:
"What is art? Is artistic merit at all objective? Is there any sense in which we can say that Beethoven is objectively better than Britney Spears?"
What I need to do as presenter is gather some easily available materials such as web articles, essays and podcasts and distribute a list to the group for pre-reading. Aesthetics is one branch of philosophy to which I have had no exposure whatsoever, and I don't know of any resources, in the same way as I would with Metaphysics or Ethics.
I would be very grateful for any suggestions anybody can make about good materials for this topic.
PS Books are another possibility, but web-accessible items are preferred, as it is often not possible to get hold of a very
specific book within a short time frame (Amazon deliveries to Australia take about three weeks). If you know of a good
introductory book that canvasses these questions in an interesting, entertaining way, please mention it.
"What is art? Is artistic merit at all objective? Is there any sense in which we can say that Beethoven is objectively better than Britney Spears?"
What I need to do as presenter is gather some easily available materials such as web articles, essays and podcasts and distribute a list to the group for pre-reading. Aesthetics is one branch of philosophy to which I have had no exposure whatsoever, and I don't know of any resources, in the same way as I would with Metaphysics or Ethics.
I would be very grateful for any suggestions anybody can make about good materials for this topic.
PS Books are another possibility, but web-accessible items are preferred, as it is often not possible to get hold of a very
specific book within a short time frame (Amazon deliveries to Australia take about three weeks). If you know of a good
introductory book that canvasses these questions in an interesting, entertaining way, please mention it.