Aesthetic Foundations: call for papers

Aesthetic Foundations

May 18-21, 2017

Ascea, Italy

~call for papers~

There is an explosion of works on the aesthetics of this and the aesthetics of that – sport, film, design, television, video games, atmosphere, graffiti, rap, food, etc. This contemporary diversification involves a confident and often facile use of such notions as aesthetic experience, aesthetic value, aesthetic appreciation, and so on. But this use in fact belies confusion about what these terms mean, or what we mean when we use them. The question of what makes any kind of encounter a particularly aesthetic one cuts to the heart of the discipline at its most complex. Not only are there divergent approaches to locating the aesthetic – in the properties of objects on the one hand, or the phenomenology of our experiences on the other – there is also a great deal of disagreement about what values arise from, or are involved in, these experiences, and how they differ from the ways we otherwise give our attention to the world. The VIIth International Wassard Elea Symposium is dedicated to a reconsideration of these core problems in aesthetics:

• What is the nature of aesthetic experience? Is it primarily evaluative?
• Is the aesthetic necessarily linked to pleasure and enjoyment?
• What is the difference between aesthetic value and other values (cognitive, etc.)?

Wassard Elea invites philosophers and aestheticians to submit papers on the topics of this year’s theme (to which papers in applied aesthetics are not relevant). Sessions of 90 min. include speaker, commentator and open discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers are accepted are expected to also prepare a commentary on another presentation at the meeting. All suitable contributions are published in our journal, Wassard Elea Rivista.

Inquiries are welcome. Full papers (format: word) should be sent directly to co-organizers: Prof. Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Via La Chiazzetta 27, I-84046 Ascea (Sa), Italy: wassardelea(at)gmail.com or Prof. Jane Forsey, University of Winnipeg, Canada: j.forsey(at)uwinnipeg.ca.

Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2017.

Information on accommodations will be posted in due course.

Wassard Elea

Refugium for writers, artists, composers, and scholars in Southern Italy

Wassardelea.blogspot.it