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Your Midterm essay will address one specific theme or issue of Aesthetics that is of particular interest to the student. Students will be given a fair amount of freedom in choosing a subject, and encouraged to send in publish to the professor if they would like direction or clarity. These essays will require rigorous academic formatting and a formal writing style, and may include images. 1500 words
Prompt A: The most pertinent question is ‘What is Art’. In your essay try to take a stance on whether or not the ancient civilizations we studied were making art. Take some of the writers we have studied and analyze their statements on the nature of art. You might for example, look at the question Bahrani asks, “What is an image”? You do not need to come up with a formulaic definition of Art, in fact I would encourage you not to. Usually definitions such as ‘self expression’ are too narrow and culturally conditioned. Instead, try to talk about the benefits or pitfalls of the thinker’s theories you are discussing.
Prompt B: “What is Beauty?” What do we mean when we say something is beautiful? Cite at least two of the thinkers we have studied and dissect their thought process. You may either choose to spend a lot of time on subsidiary questions, such as “what does it mean to create something beautiful?”; “Do standards of beauty change?”; “is beauty subjective?”, or you may choose to give these questions on cursory consideration, and instead focus more on the more abstract question.
Prompt C: How has the role of the artist changed throughout history? For this prompt you must dive deep into several civilizations in order to explain what sort of societal or metaphysical role the artist played. Juxtapose these different societies to come to some framework for discussing what is culturally conditioned and what is not about the artist. Please do not just tell the story of how art has changed (don’t do too much history), but rather try to describe the philosophy behind the changing political position of the artist.
Individual thinkers should be cited in-text according to last name and page number, e.g.: (Weil, 23)
Citation for course packet to be placed in bibliography: Plato, et al. “Phil 209 Aesthetics Course Packets.” 2021. PDF file.
If you went to the Rosicrucian museum please make a note of this at the bottom of your paper.
Grading:
First axiom: You must demonstrate how much you have learned about a philosopher. Keep this in mind in every paragraph of your essay. Generally, the best way to do this is through exegesis, meaning you must take difficult quotes and dissect them.
Second axiom: Outside sources in moderation. Outside sources are most definitely encouraged, as they can add a unique dimension to the paper, and can help to achieve ‘depth’ points. However, what you want to avoid at all costs is the outside sources crowding out the sources we have studied in this class. If you add quotations from some of Plato’s other books then that is absolutely fantastic. But if you relate an outside sociological study to Plato’s thinking, for example, then be very sure that the time you spend on the source is proportional to how much it helps to explain Plato.
The general paragraph format of introducing a quotation, citing the quotation, and explaining the quotation is a good starting point for building your paragraphs. However, ‘A’ papers will require a depth of interpretation. To really write an excellent philosophy paper the explanation of the quote is crucial. For example, a well-chosen quote cannot be explained in a sentence or two. An ‘A’ paper will have a very thorough explanation of a quotation (think of how long we sometimes spend on just a single line of a philosopher), this explanation will be well organized, and focused. When you quote a philosopher, try to go beyond the quote itself: don’t just tell me what the quote means, tell me what the quote means and how it relates to the rest of the thinkers philosophy, to a larger concept you are pushing, to the thinker’s historical context, ect.
Introductions: An introduction should frame your argument and prepare your reader. Have you noticed how important it is to understand context when you receive a message from someone else? For example, imagine if we began our first class without any preliminaries, just jumping right into a text. Can you see how much more difficult it would be to understand the text if you didn’t know where we were going? This is the job of the introduction. There is a reason that I say the first lines of any book are the most important. Be very thoughtful about the first lines of your paper.
Depth: Importantly, you need to analyze a quote, you can’t assume that it’s meaning is obvious. If it really is absolutely obvious, then choose a different quote. To really write an excellent philosophy paper the explanation of the quote is crucial. For example, a well-chosen quote cannot be explained in a sentence or two. An ‘A’ paper will have a very thorough explanation of a quotation (think of how long we sometimes spend on just a single line of a philosopher), this explanation will be well organized, and focused. Really think deeply about both the philosopher and the philosophical question. Try to move to abstract principles: show me that you understand both the project of the philosopher, the greater questions at stake, the historical context, ect.
Organization: An ‘A’ paper will be extremely well organized. Give a lot of thought as to why certain paragraphs are coming before or after certain others. Transitions are important for organization. Do not let your paper wander. It is OK to go on a tangent as long as you reconnect that tangent to the main point. You should by the end be able to take a bird’s eye view of your paper and say “this is what this paragraph is doing, which leads us to the next idea which is expressed in the next paragraph, which leaves us with a question which is answered in the next paragraph” and so on.
Citations should be in format of author page number, like this: (Nietzsche, p.72). You do not need to cite page number for SEP, or any of the extra documents we have used in class (which are all available in the ‘files’ sections of canvas). A Bibliography should be at the end of your essay, but any format (Chicago, MLA, Harvard) is perfectly acceptable.
Rubric is posted below:
Organization and framing
Do your paragraphs stay focused or wander?
Are your transitions between paragraphs natural?
Do your paragraphs make sense where they are?
/20
Introduction
Is your introduction clear?
Is your introduction beautiful?
/10
Context and Quotations
Do you introduce quotes?
Do you use relevant quotes?
Do you use enough quotes?
/20
Depth
Does your analysis of the quotes demonstrate your understanding of the issue?
/20
Citations and Bibliography
/10
Grammar, Formality, Syntax.
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