How have different cultures and wisdom traditions understood art, beauty, and artistic value?

In this session, we’ll introduce a range of philosophical traditions the aesthetic questions they produce. We’ll look at Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Classical Greek, Medieval European, Islamic, and Feminist philosophies. Rather than assuming a single definition of beauty or art, we’ll look at how different frameworks shape what sort of meaning arises.

The course takes a comparative turn by placing traditions in conversation with one another, we’ll see how ideas about art reflect deeper views about the self, the world, and our relationship to both. The goal isn’t to rank perspectives, but to notice how thinking about art changes when the philosophical ground beneath it shifts.