Study Questions for Aesthetics Mid-Term Exam, Fall 2015


Study questions for Davies, Ch. 1: Evolution and Culture

1.         Describe the biological account of the origin of art (as Davies explains it). What are some reasons/arguments for this account? How is it different from the cultural account?

2.         Explain the genetic story behind the view that art has a biological origin. How might art be adaptive (responsible for reproductive success)?

3.         Describe the cultural account of the origin of art (as Davies explains it). What are some reasons/arguments for this account? How is it different from the biological account?

4.         Which account of the origin of art (biological or cultural) do you think is most persuasive (if either) and why?

5.         Explain the distinction between art and craft. Give clear examples of each and explain how they illustrate the differences between what makes something art and what makes something craft.

6.         Explain the concept of disinterestedness and how it relates to art and art appreciation. Use examples in your explanation.

7.         Explain why someone might think that ancient “art” is not art. What would the cultural view of art say about this?

8.         Explain why someone might think that non-western cultures do not have art.

9.         As forcefully as you can, explain the criticism of art museums that Davies discusses. Do you think there is any merit in these criticisms? What can be said in favor of putting art in museums?

10.       Explain the argument in favor of the view that pop art and mass art is not art. What is pop art? What is mass art? Do you think they should count as art?


Study questions, Telfer, Food as Art

1.         Do all aesthetic experiences involve pleasure? Why or why not? Are all aesthetic experiences positive? Why or why not?

2.         Give examples of aesthetic experiences that might be considered negative (and explain why). Distinguish them from non-aesthetic experiences (and explain why they are non-aesthetic). Give examples of positive aesthetic experiences that involve pleasure. Now give examples of positive aesthetic experiences that don't involve pleasure (and explain in what way they are positive).

3.         Using an example, explain the difference between the two sense of a work of art that Telfer discusses (the classifying and evaluative senses).

4.         According to Telfer, what is the difference between an art and a craft? How does she use this criterion to determine when food is art and not craft?

5.         Cooking involves at least two works of art: What are they?

6.         According to Telfer, who is the composer and who is the performance artist when it comes to cooking?

7.         Does Telfer believe the state should subsidize the art of food and provide education so that people can be knowledgeable about this art? Why or why not?

8.         What are Telfer's reasons for thinking the art of food is a minor rather than major art form?

9.         What would Telfer's reaction be the following claim. Since there are no taste symphonies or taste sonatas, food is way too simple to be a major art form.

10.       On your own view, is food an art form? Why or why not? In answering this question, evaluate the strongest arguments both for the claim it is and for the claim it is not (consider at least three different considerations on each side of this dispute). Make sure you look at this question from both the classifying and evaluative dimensions.


Study questions for Davies, Ch 2: Defining Art

1.         Using examples, explain the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions. Can something be necessary without being sufficient? Can something be sufficient without being necessary?

2.         Explain the difference between the definition and the extension of the term “art.

3.         Give a clear-cut example of something that any definition of art must include under the category of art and then a clear-cut example of something that a definition of art must exclude from that category.

4.         What is anti-essentialism about art? Explain one of Weitz’s reasons for his anti-essentialism.

5.         Must artworks be artifacts (made by humans) or could they be found ready-made in nature? What about a piece of driftwood in a museum?

6.         Describe the “warehouse test/example” and explain how it relates to the issue of defining art. Why does people’s agreement or disagreement about what is art matter to the warehouse test?

7.         Explain the “family-resemblance” view of art’s nature and explain two of the weaknesses/problems with this view that Davies identifies.

8.         Explain “radical stipulativism’s” account of the nature of art. How is this view different from the view that says: “Whatever anyone says is art is art for them” (“subjectivism about art”)? How is radical stipulativism different from the institutional theory of art?

9.         Explain why Davies thinks radical stipulativism “gets things backwards.”

10.       How is defining art by its intrinsic properties different from defining it by its relational properties? Give examples. How are aunts and uncles defined by their relational properties?

11.       What account of art is given by “aesthetic functionalism.”

12.       Why does Davies think that aesthetic functionalism can’t account for some of Duchamp’s ready-mades or some other conceptual pieces of art?

13.       Explain the institutional theory of art. Use the golf example to explain this theory. How is it different from aesthetic functionalism?

14.       What is “historicism’s” account of art. Explain how historicism would view the claim that if something can be art at one time it can be art at other times. Identify and explain one weakness of historicism.

15.       Using examples, explain and evaluate the following: Arthur Danto argues that what can become art--and the significance that art has--depends on when and where it is offered and by whom.

16.       Give examples of artworks by the following artists

            a.         Chris Burden, Tracy Emin, Andy Warhol, Carl Andre, Marcel Duchamp, Christo


Is It Art or Just a Toilet Seat?

1.         Describe the toilet seat that is being discussed in this article. What does it look like, when painted and by whom?

2.         Why would anyone pay 100,000 or more for it?

3.         Do you think the intentions of the painters who painted it are relevant to whether or not it is art? (If Michelangelo draws a picture of a fish and rolls on a napkin to indicate to the waiter what he wants for dinner, is that art?)

4.         Must the toilet seat fit into the corpus of the painter if it is to be art, as Danto claims?

5.         Is the toilet seat memorabilia rather than art? What is the difference?

6.         What did Picasso do with his check’s to help insure they were not cashed?


Study Questions reading on Tilted Arc

1.         Describe the details of the case of Richard Serra's Tilted Arc.

2.         Respond to the following criticism of Tilted Arc: It looks like "an abandoned piece of construction material" and since construction waste is an aesthetic blight, so is tilted arc.

3.         Do you think Tilted Arc should have been removed? Why or why not?

4.         Did removing Tilted art destroy it? Why might someone think it did?

5.         What are some possible bad consequences of the removal of Tilted Arc?

6.         Was the removal of Tilted Arc a democratic decision? Should decisions about art be democratic?

7.         What does Serra say about what he was trying to do with Tilted Arc?

8.         Is it a good idea for the public to fund art? Why or why not?


Study Questions on Horowitz on Tilted Arc           

1.         What do you think the “meaning” of TA was; what did it symbolize? What was Serra trying to do with TA?

2.         According to Horowitz, what did people want TA (or a sculpture in that plaza) to symbolize or do?

3.         What reasons are there for thinking the removal of TA was censorship of political speech?

4.         According to Horowitz, why did TA become controversial?

5.         What was Horowitz's response to the claims that Tilted Arc (1) destroyed the beauty of the plaza and (2) blocked the ordinary walking patterns of the users of the plaza?


Questions on Kelly’s “Public Art Controversy: The Serra and Lin cases”

1.         Present the strongest arguments you can both for and against the claim that what happened in the Tilted Arc case was democratic (using both Horowitz's and Kelly's discussion of the case). What is your own view on this specific question. Was removing TA censorship? Was it a violation of Serra’s free speech rights?

2.         Present the strongest arguments you can both for and against the claim that removal of Tilted Arc would destroy it. Make sure you address both Serra's arguments on this issue as well as Kelly's arguments. Do you think removing it destroyed it?

3.         Describe and discuss the interpretations (possible meanings) of Tilted Arc, considering Serra's, Horowitz's and Kelly's ideas. Make sure you address the political interpretations of the sculpture. How does your own view of Tilted Arc fit or not fit with these accounts?

4.         Explain why Kelly thinks that Tilted Arc was not public art. Do you agree with him?

5.         Explain Kelly's argument that Tilted Arc was not site specific because it lacked a kind of "reciprocity" that is needed for being site specific. Why does he think Lin’s VVM has this reciprocity?

6.         Describe the case of Maya Lin's Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. Was this piece of public art vastly more controversial than Serra's TA? Why might one think it should have been (and perhaps was)?

7.         Explain what Kelly believes Maya Lin's did with the VVM that Serra did not do in TA case. How does the case of the VVM do a better job than TA in "negotiating the controversies surrounding public art" at least according to Kelly? Do you agree with him? Why?

8.         Evaluate: The TA and VVM cases show that for public art to succeed it must submit to the desires, tastes, and beliefs of the public, rather than educating or challenging them about their taste, desires, and/or beliefs.



Questions on Levine’s Lessons from the Brooklyn Museum Controversy

1.         Describe the controversy over the Sensation exhibit in the Brooklyn Museum. While considering arguments for the other side, defend your view on what should have happened in that case.

2.         Explain the analogy between academic freedom and freedom of artists/curators to produce/display what they want. Is this a good analogy?

3.         May the government ever refuse to support art because it does not like the content of the proposed artwork? May the government ever ban art (privately produced and displayed) because it disapproves of the content?

4.         Is the reduction in the public funding of art in this country tantamount to censorship of artists? Does the 1st amendment guarantee art funding?

5.         Do you agree with Levine that like advocates of other publicly funded projects (such as homeless shelters and schools), artists and the artworld needs to publicly argue for and defend public monies spent on art?

6.         Is it a painter’s job to justify his/her art in words?

7.         What is the Jeffersonian principle? Describe several possible interpretations of it.

8.         Is this a good principle? What are some problematic counter examples for it? What are some examples that support it?

9.         Might artworks that are offensive to the public when first produced later be seen to be great works of art? Give an example.


Questions on “Quebec special effects artist not guilty of corrupting morals”

1.         Describe what Remy Couture did on his website that got him charged with obscenity?

2.         Was it obscene? Did it have artistic merit? Can obscene material have artistic merit?

3.         Did Couture use artistic talent to create his images and videos?

4.         Do you agree with Couture’s claims he was creating horror and his aim was to disgust? If so, does that suggest it should not be banned?

5.         What do you think of Couture’s argument that

            a.         1: The state has no business defining what is art

            b.         2: That if it shut him down, it was infringing on his right of free expression?


Questions on Davies, Ch. 3: Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art

1.         Describe the views of those who embrace what Davies calls “aesthetic theories of art.”

2.         Describe the views of those (“contextualists”) who reject aesthetic theories of art.

3.         What is an aesthetic property? Give 5 examples of different aesthetic properties. Give an example of a positive and then a negative aesthetic property. Using an example, explain what it means to say that aesthetic properties are higher-order properties that are based on lower-level non-aesthetic properties.

4.         What is an artistic property? Give examples of 3 or 4 artistic properties of a work of art and explain why they are artistic and not aesthetic properties.

5.         Explain the difference between aesthetic properties and artistic properties.

6.         Are the artist’s intentions relevant to the artworks aesthetic properties? Why or why not?

7.         What does Davies think about the relative importance of artistic and aesthetic properties to the identity and content of artworks?

8.         Explain the “aesthetic attitude” and relate it to Mark Twain’s experience of the Mississippi after he learned to “read the water.” Do you think that adopting the “aesthetic attitude” is important for aesthetic experience? What does Davies think about the importance of appreciating art with a distanced and disinterested attitude?

9.         Explain how Davies attempts to show that aesthetic theory is internally inconsistent with the example of Bruegel’s Landscape with Fall of Icarus.

10.       Explain how Davies criticizes aesthetic theory using Lin’s Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial. How would the defender of aesthetic theory respond to this criticism. Who do you think is right?

11.       Using three example, explain why Davies thinks aesthetic theory has trouble accounting for perceptually equivalent objects.

12.       Is forgery a problem for aesthetic theory? Why or why not?

13.       What does Davies think about the person who “delights in the gleaming whiteness of Duchamp’s Fountain”?

14.       Are all external, contextual, or relational properties of an artwork relevant to its artistic appreciation? Discuss using examples of such properties that are arguably not relevant to the artistic or aesthetic appreciation of an artwork.

15.       Should the fact that a work was created (e.g., painted) by a female rather than a male effect our appreciation of it? What does Davies think about this? Do you agree with him?

16.       Is Davies a “cognitivist?” Does he think that gut level responses are sufficient for aesthetic appreciation? Does Davies think appropriate appreciation of rock music involves a gut level response or thought-filled interaction?

17.       Identify and describe the following: Duchamp’s Fountain, LHOOQ, and LHOOQ SHAVED; Picasso’s Guernica; Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ; Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes, ca 1612; Carl Andre’s Equivalent VIII; Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes (1964); Chris Burden’s Shoot and Transfixed; Sherrie Levine’s photography.


Study questions for Scruton, The Decline of Musical Culture

1.         Explain the difference between aesthetic relativism, aesthetic subjectivism, and aesthetic objectivism. Which does Scruton embrace? What is a dogmatist? Is Scruton a dogmatist? Must an aesthetic objectivist be a dogmatist? Why or why not? Can an aesthetic objectivist agree that “everyone is entitled to his or her own tastes?” Why or why not?

2.         What are some of Scruton’s criticism of popular music? State them as forcefully as you can. Why does Scruton think fans of pop music do not listen to the music?

3.         Does Scruton reject all popular music as musically unsophisticated and equally deficient? Why or why not? Give examples.

4.         Does Scruton think music is relatively important or unimportant? Explain his reasons.

5.         Would Scruton support public funding of art? Why or why not? Does he think we have a duty to educate about people about good taste?

6.         As forcefully as you can, explain the connection between music, dance, social character, and morals that Scruton defends. Do you agree with him? Does the music you listen and dance to reflect and affect who you are?

7.         What is absolute music? Why might making Scruton’s case for the above connections be more difficult with absolute music?

8.         Why does Scruton object to “democratic egalitarian culture?”

9.         How does Scruton think we should dance and how does he think we in fact dance today?


Study questions on Baugh, “Prolegomena to Any Aesthetics of Rock Music” and

Davies, “Rock vs. Classical

1.         Explain Baugh’s ideas about the differences between how one should evaluate and appreciate rock music versus classical music. How does Davies respond to each of these suggestions? Do you think his responses are successful? Do you side more with Davies or Baugh in this debate, if either. Explain your reasoning.

2.         Contrast Baugh and Davies on whether or not rock music has different aesthetic standards than what govern classical music. Do you agree with one more than the other? Why or why not? Does Davies think useful generalizations can be made between these two types of music? Why or why not?

3.         Describe what Baugh means by “classical formalist aesthetics.” What is involved in appreciating and evaluating music with these standards?

4.         Explain Baugh’s distinction between the form and matter of music. What are the three elements of matter that Baugh thinks are central to rock music? (For example, what is “expressivity of tone?”)

5.         Explain Davies response to the Baugh’s form/matter distinction and to Baugh’s use of it.

6.         According to Baugh, what sort of intellectual skills, if any, are involved in paying attention to rock music. What role, if any, does the body play in appreciating rock?

7.         Where do Davies and Baugh stand on the claim that rock is a performance oriented tradition, while classical is focused on the music as specifically notated? Does either think that the primary art work in rock (or classical) is the recording? What considerations are brought to bear on this issue?

8.         Baugh argues that matter and performance do count in classical, but in a derivative sort of way. Explain how.

9.         What would Baugh’s response be to the claim that rock music is for the most part formally simple and thus musically insignificant?

10.       Explain the difference Baugh claims exists in classical versus rock concerning how dance is related to music. What does Davies think about this claim?

11.       What is Baugh’s view of the importance of faithfulness to the music/score in rock music and the importance of avoiding missing the notes the score dictates? What is Davies response to the position Baugh takes on this issue.

12.       Explain what Baugh might mean when he claims some rock singers are technically not very good, but nonetheless great singers. How is this possible? Give an example.

13.       Does Davies think that perceptions of musical expressiveness are non-intellectual? Why or why not? Does convention and socialization play a large role in hearing the expressiveness of music or are emotional responses to music built-in to human nature? What does Davies think about this? What do you think? Use examples.

14.       What do you think of Davies claim that Baugh’s view is that the person who appreciates rock music does not listen to it but rather has a physiological reaction to the noise it makes? Explain the difference between listening to music and responding with emotion on the one hand and having a physiological reaction to the music on the other.

15.       Explain Davies distinction between music that is either thick or thin with constitutive properties and give examples. Is a recording of music thick or thin? Is Jazz thick or thin? Why?

16.       What are some reasons Davies considers for why some might have doubts about the quality of the musicianship in rock music? Are these doubts legitimate in your mind?