Aesthetics for Birds

Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art for Everyone

July 12, 2013
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Holy shit! The 2013 Annual ASA Looks Fucking Awesome!

My heartiest congratulations to the programming committee for the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Aesthetics (Oct. 30th-Nov. 2nd, San Diego) as they’ve managed to put together not just a fantastic program (a draft of which can be found here) but quite frankly one of the strongest ASA conference programs I’ve ever seen. The Panel Line-Up alone features a dizzing array of philosophical talent both from within Philosophical Aesthetics and from without. Check out the following examples of Panelized Philosophical Bad-Assery (**starting with the obvious show-stopper**): Panel: Editor Meet-Critics Session on Christy Mag Uidhir’s Art and Abstract Objects Gabriel Greenberg (UCLA)Troy Jollimore (Cal State University, Chico)Eric Winsberg (University of South Florida)Christy Mag Uidhir (University of Houston) Panel: Aesthetics and the Senses Mohan Matthen (University of Toronto)Diana Raffman (University of Toronto)Clare Batty (University of Kentucky)Jenny McMahon (University of Adelaide) Panel: Fact, Fiction or Fraud Stacie Friend (Heythrop College)Joshua Landy (Stanford University)Jonathan … Continue reading

July 10, 2013
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy

Below is the full CFP from the newly launched Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy, where I serve as area editor for Aesthetics & Philosophy of Art submissions. I think the addition of another top-flight open access philosophy journal (a la Philosophers’ Imprint) is great news for the philosophy profession and given Ergo‘s generalist aims, likewise great news for philosophical aesthetics by promising a great mainstream venue for high quality work in our field. I enthusiastically encourage you to consider submitting your work to Ergo. **NOTE: There is a special place in hell reserved for philosophers who refuse referee requests from open access journals.**  Ergo CFP Ergo is a general, open access philosophy journal accepting submissions on all philosophical topics and from all philosophical traditions. This includes, among other things: history of philosophy, work in both the analytic and continental traditions, as well as formal and empirically informed philosophy. Ergo uses a triple-anonymous peer review … Continue reading

July 6, 2013
by Aesthetics for Birds
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TOWARDS A GENDER-BALANCED PHILOSOPHY OF ART SYLLABUS

by Christy Mag Uidhir ***UPDATED 07/31/13. I encourage readers to continue to send suggestions.***[minor update by Alex King in 2020] Lamarque & Olsen’s Aesthetics & The Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition is arguably the best general anthology in Contemporary Anglo-American Aesthetics. Unfortunately, this anthology distinguishes itself yet another way by having only 2 of its 46 articles written by women (in fact, the very same woman as it turns out). A friend of mine teaching philosophy of art for the first time recently discovered this and asked me to suggest some articles written by women with which to supplement the anthology. I’ve copied the list I sent him below so that it might be a useful resource for others in similar situations. I welcome and actively encourage readers to suggest additions in the comments section at which point I’ll update the list accordingly. However, please note that my interest … Continue reading

July 4, 2013
by Aesthetics for Birds
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AESTHETICS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

[This post has been updated.] What follows is an assessment of the professional state of Aesthetics with respect to faculty research at Leiter-ranked Programs in the United Kingdom. I counted only permanent faculty and so excluded visiting, emeritus, as well as affiliated faculty. Finally, faculty were counted according to two conditions which I’ve explained below (AOS, Primary). The full program/faculty list can be found at the link provided. Again, please inform me of any omissions or mistakes, as I no doubt made a few.

July 1, 2013
by Aesthetics for Birds
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THE STATUS OF AESTHETICS IN THE LEITER TOP 50

What follows is an assessment of the professional status of Aesthetics/Philosophy of Art  in terms of the number of philosophy faculty at U.S. programs within the Leiter Top 50. At the end, I’ll make a few observations, but for the most part the numbers pretty much speak for themselves. My aim here is neither to offer some sort of de facto guide to graduate Aesthetics nor in any way to impugn the quality or availability of any program’s graduate instruction therein. Rather, my goal is simply to draw attention to the current state of Aesthetics with respect to faculty research at Leiter Top 50 U.S. Philosophy Programs.