Welcome to the course

Aesthetics of the Everyday

(7,5 Credits)

• Official Syllabus
• Course readings can be found on the Reading list. (All texts are accessible in PDF format from this page.)
  
• The course will be taught in an online format. You find the schedule in the course menu.
• Zoom link for all seminars: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/64489143593 (password: poise)
• Friday optional social space (14:15-16:00): https://gather.town/app/yQgoXgXPZvOMHDiE/Everyday%20Aesthetics (password: poise)
• The course will be run and taught by Dr Maarten Steenhagen. In the link Contact above you will find contact details for the course director, administration and directors of studies.
• On this page you can watch and listen to the mini essays you produced. 

What will we do in this course?

In this course we try to develop an understanding of the role of aesthetic value in everyday life. It is common for philosophical aesthetics to study art (painting, film, literature…). Sometimes it covers beauty in nature as well. But what about the ordinary things we make and do? An arrangement of furniture, one's clothes, the manner in which someone walks down the street. It seems that these can be beautiful or ugly as well. In other words, aesthetic value seems to figure in our everyday lives in a way that isn't obviously captured in a "philosophy of art". In this course, we will study central debates about the aesthetics of the everyday. The discussion will range from the aesthetic appreciation of the trivial and the mundane, to the "aestheticist" claim that aesthetic value should guide you in leading your life.

Are you registered for this course and want to do some preparatory reading?

Then please have a look at:

Yuriko Saito, Everyday aesthetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007 (Find in the library)