Themes Addressed in class; forthcoming assignment

From time-to-time I'd like to highlight some of what we touched on in class. On Tuesday we talked about the author's intention and whether it is controlling in our response to that artist's work. I've given some considerations (the Huxley anecdote) that suggest it is not controlling.

I also talked about the "holy grail" in aesthetics: a criterian , or set of criteria, that individually, or as a set (as in the case of the definition of a triangle) that has, or have, a necessary-and-sufficient relationship with worth in art. No such set that has been proposed has worked in this way. But one might ask whether there are some criteria that are at least "good-making." Even this appears to be problematic. To follow out this thread, are the criteria that Rosenberg identifies, at least "good making" even if they are not individually, or as a group, necessary and sufficient for indentifying worth in art. This is the basis for an assignment for next week that I will make in class today.