What is beauty? Why does art give us pleasure? How can musical sounds express human emotions? How are the aesthetic, the erotic and the political spheres of human experience interrelated? This course explores these questions and others concerning the production, criticism, and appreciation of the arts. Theorists considered include Plato, Aristotle, Burke, Nietzsche, Langer and Freud. The course also examines many art-works, constantly testing aesthetic theories in light of actual aesthetic experience. Examples considered range from Greek tragedy to Renaissance painting to rock music. (Group III)