• Passed the admission test.
• The student has a general basic knowledge of philosophy and general cultural subjects as offered in the curriculum of the Conservatoire or equivalent.

The course of art philosophy will start with the obvious starting point: Wat exactly is philosophy and art philosophy in particular? How does it differ from art sciences, art criticism, art history? And why is art philosophy today one of the more popular disciplines within philosophy? The first session of the course will be devoted to these questions.

After this introduction the course will take on a more or less thematic approach. The idea is to select themes/topics that are connected to or intertwine with art practices like dance, performance…: body versus mind, reason versus feelings/emotions, showing (presence) versus hiding (absence), representation versus presentation, …. Some examples of possible philosophical questions in relation to these topics are/can be:

• What exactly does embodiment mean and what are the consequences for (re)presenting in art?
• Can you still show yourself in an authentic way on stage in a market based art world? And what does authenticity mean in a world of art?
• What has been the place of the body and emotions in the history of philosphy and what is contemporary art and philosophy doing with this tradition?
• How does the aesthetic and philosophical exploration of an emotion like disgust reflect on our western attitude towards the body in art?
• Can we balance freedom of artistic creativity with evolving social norms, standards and taboos?

These questions are just indications of possible topics. The idea is that students also have the possibility to suggest themes/topics that fall in the scope of art philosophy or that can be approached from that perspective.
The themes/topics will be explored through:

1. Reading of texts of philosophers that have addressed/are addressing these topics. Sometimes students will have to prepare a certain texts/ text passages at home before the next course. In class we discuss the texts and the teacher will further explain the texts.
2. Exploration of the ideas of a certain philosopher (Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Derrida on deconstruction….) that is relevant to the topic at hand at that moment through the explanation offered by the teacher in class.

The idea is to address a few topics in this way and along the way get acquainted with important figures in the world of art philosophy and their ideas.

• Every student must have a laptop for blended learning (online and offline classes)
• See Trotter (study guide)

A comprehensive general and specific reading list is provided to students at the beginning of the lectures.

Antoon Van den Braembussche, Thinking Art, Springer, 2009.

Evaluation

Refer to the evaluation list for the specific evaluation components of the course unit.

Re-sit exam
Not all courses have a re-sit exam possibility. Refer to the notification above in this ECTS information sheet for the possibility of a re-sit exam for this course unit.

A re-sit exam:

• is not possible for assessment methods that use permanent evaluation (see evaluation list above). When a re-sit exam is possible for the course, the grade for the permanent evaluation of the first examination period is transferred to the second examination period.
• is possible for the evaluation components that do not include permanent evaluation.

Attendance requirement:
100% attendance in classes is required as the programme is organised in short-term intensive modules. In case of less than 100% attendance, the student will receive 0/20 for the test form permanent evaluation.

Conditions for legitimate absence:

* An absence legitimised by a medical certificate uploaded in iBamaFlex
* Due to an Act of God, if approved by the head of the programme
* Exceptional circumstances, if approved by the head of the programme