Postgraduate "Work In Progress" Seminar
Postgraduate Work-In-Progress SeminarA weekly seminar for Philosophy postgraduates to present their in-progress work, followed by a well-spirited trip to the pub. OverviewThe WIP provides a risk-free and supportive space for postgraduates to present their work and receive feedback from other graduates and faculty.
Attendance optional but highly recommended. All postgraduates are welcome to present or attend -- whether MA, MPhil, PhD, Visitors, etc. Useful InfoThe WIP is a unique opportunity for graduates to develop their presenting and writing skills, take risks, test out ideas, and receive constructive feedback from peers.
Presentations need not be watertight or polished pieces at all. You are encouraged to present work at all stages of the writing process. "Should I present?"1. If you are a postgraduate, then you should present. 2. You are a postgraduate. 3. Therefore, you should present. |
NEXT TALKOscar Jenkinson (MA) Kant/Hegel Wednesday 01/07/2026 5pm - 6:15pm S0.08 ORGANISERS |
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CANCELLED: Postgraduate Work in Progress Seminar
Speaker: Adam Bainbridge
Title: How to Appreciate Art (according to the critics)
Respondent: Gianluca Lorenzini
What is it to appreciate a work of art? For example, is it coherent to say 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a good sculpture, but I don鈥檛 like it鈥�?
Analytic philosophers of art who think about art criticism typically agree that successful criticism must be evaluative. They claim that critics must judge the value of artworks, as art. But philosophical consensus quickly unravels into disagreements about how judgements are to be justified, and into disagreements about what makes artistic value valuable.
These philosophical divergences emerge in different beliefs about what a 鈥減roper鈥� encounter with a work of art amounts to. In this talk, I want to suggest that the philosophers are not paying adequate attention to the actual practice of art criticism. I will introduce three possible ways of understanding appreciation in this context and I鈥檒l ask: is there a relationship between our beliefs about an artwork鈥檚 value and our susceptibility to experience affective and emotional responses? I will argue that to appreciate an artwork is not merely to recognise its value, it is to incorporate the work into our lives.