F1115 Pleasure: from Aesthetics to Ethics
During the Renaissance and the 17th c., Neo-Epicurism and Augustinism paradoxically agreed on the fact that human beings, guided by self-love, act only in view of what is pleasurable to them. This view became widespread, and gave rise to heated controversies. Are we capable of disinterested feelings and actions? This issue affects not only ethics, but the religious and political domains as well. On the religious side, whereas traditionally God was supposed to be loved just for himself, the Jansenists (Pascal, Nicole) underlined that grace is a spiritual pleasure of sorts which attracts us. On the political side, vices were generally seen as detrimental to the common good and virtue as a disinterested service to the commonwealth. However, the supporters of the pleasure principle maintained that extreme selfishness is compatible with well-organized societies. After Hobbes proposed his combination of personal interest and shrewd calculation, Mandeville\'s Fable of the Bees, at the beginning of the 18th century, contended that private vices are beneficial to public prosperity.
As a response to that cynical description of humankind\'s motivations, Hutcheson highlighted a different type of pleasure, which, he thought, proved that we are capable of non-greedy feelings: esthetic pleasure. The enjoyment of beauty became, in the 18th century, the object of a new discipline, esthetics, which culminated in Kant\'s analysis of this \"disinterested pleasure\", while Schiller was seeing in aesthetic education a way to put humankind on the path of moral and political improvement. At the same time, aesthetic pleasure provided the paradigm for exploring the complexity of sentiments where pleasure is reconcilable with altruism, as in Hume\'s ethics. Also, the right to individual pleasure and happiness made its way in public opinion with the promoters of Enlightenment and modern hedonism (Diderot).
We will first study the reassessment, in the Renaissance and early 17th century, of classical ethics (Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics), by thinkers such as Ficino, Valla, Spinoza, Locke. We will then follow the story outlined above. Venice will provide the ideal frame for reflecting on art works, beauty and pleasure.
CLASS POLICY:
Texts assigned in the syllabus must be studied in advance for making the best of each class.
As a response to that cynical description of humankind\'s motivations, Hutcheson highlighted a different type of pleasure, which, he thought, proved that we are capable of non-greedy feelings: esthetic pleasure. The enjoyment of beauty became, in the 18th century, the object of a new discipline, esthetics, which culminated in Kant\'s analysis of this \"disinterested pleasure\", while Schiller was seeing in aesthetic education a way to put humankind on the path of moral and political improvement. At the same time, aesthetic pleasure provided the paradigm for exploring the complexity of sentiments where pleasure is reconcilable with altruism, as in Hume\'s ethics. Also, the right to individual pleasure and happiness made its way in public opinion with the promoters of Enlightenment and modern hedonism (Diderot).
We will first study the reassessment, in the Renaissance and early 17th century, of classical ethics (Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics), by thinkers such as Ficino, Valla, Spinoza, Locke. We will then follow the story outlined above. Venice will provide the ideal frame for reflecting on art works, beauty and pleasure.
CLASS POLICY:
Texts assigned in the syllabus must be studied in advance for making the best of each class.
Syllabus
Evaluation
Readings
Evaluation
Readings