85844 - Active Lifestyle, Aesthetics, Globalization

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course the student acquires knowledges about: - the current relationship between economic-political factors and developments (globalization) and creative processes structuring active lifestyles; - how to examine and interpret the cultural factors contributing to the achievement and maintenance of a condition of well-being.

Course contents

Title of the lecture course:

Philosophizing about the Body: Aesthetics, Popular Culture, Sport, Lifestyle.

The course will inquire into some contemporary transformations of aesthetics also taking into consideration its relationship to certain social questions and its influence on our everyday life and the shaping of our lifestyle.

In this perspective it will be especially examined a recent development of the tradition of pragmatist aesthetics specifically focused on the body, namely somaesthetics, and some recent questions concerning the influence of popular culture on so-called phenomena of ‘widespread aestheticization of the world’ and also the philosophy of sport.

Readings/Bibliography

Readings/Bibliography:

1) R. Shusterman, Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, Rethinking Art, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham-Boulder-New York-Oxford 2000 (2^nd edition), only the following parts:

first part of Chapter 6: “Aesthetic Ideology, Aesthetic Education, and Art’s Value in Critique” (pp. 139-147),

Chapter 7: “Form and Funk: The Aesthetic Challenge of Popular Art”,

Chapter 10: “Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal”.

2) R. Shusterman, “Bodies in the Streets: The Soma, the City, and the Art of Living”, in Bodies in the Streets: The Somaesthetics of City Life, ed. by R. Shusterman, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2019, pp. 13-37.

3) John William Devine – Francisco Javier Lopez Frias, “Philosophy of Sport”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sport.

4) W. Welsch, "Sport viewed aesthetically, and even as art?", in The Aesthetics of Everyday Life, ed. by A. Light and J.M. Smith, Columbia University Press, New York 2005, pp. 135-155.

5) E. Wilson, Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity, London-New York: Tauris & Co. 2003, only pp. 1-15 (Chapter 1: Introduction).

The bibliography may be subject to changes until the beginning of the lecture course.

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures.

Assessment methods

Assessment methods.

The assessment method is twofold: written and oral.

The students will first write a paper on one of the texts in the program of this lecture course, and send the paper to the teacher as email attachment (Word or Pdf) at least 7 days before the day of the oral exam published on AlmaEsami.

The paper must be written using Times New Roman 12, and must be long 5-10 pages max.

Then, the students will make an oral examination on the other parts of the program, namely on the texts that were not included in the paper.

The written and the oral parts of the examination will ensure the achievement of the following objectives:

- knowledge of the main conceptual contents of the texts examined;

- general orientation concerning the characteristics of contemporary aesthetic culture;

- comprehension of the affinities and differences between heterogeneous philosophical approaches to popular culture;

- comprehension of the meaning of the concepts learned in relation to the concrete phenomena taken into account.

Teaching tools

The lessons will be supported by the multimedia material available in the classroom.

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Marino