Entry requirements

82,5 credits in philosophy (teaching subject or main field of study), aesthetics, musicology, literature or art history

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

• summarize and discuss some of the main debates in ethics and aesthetics regarding cultural heritage
• identify and critically assess different ethical positions regarding the preservation, ownership, and display of cultural artefacts
• develop and support through argument or evidence their own views on current debates concerning cultural heritage, drawing on a breadth of research in philosophy and potentially including research from other disciplines
• apply and articulate the relevance of philosophical debates on cultural heritage to concrete cases, or use concrete cases of cultural heritage to identify and explore new philosophical questions
• contrast ethical and aesthetic values in cultural heritage and describe how those values can interrelate.

Content

Many of us believe we have a collective responsibility to preserve cultural artefacts. Why do cultural artefacts matter to us? What reasons do we have to preserve them? This course examines recent debates in ethics and aesthetics concerning the preservation, ownership, and display of cultural heritage. Indicative topics it will examine include the nature of our responsibilities to cultural artefacts, the ways that objects can mediate experiences of the past, how monuments express a community's commitments and values and what we should do with monuments that are now perceived as morally problematic, and how the uniqueness or authenticity of objects can contribute to their value.

Instruction

Instruction is provided through seminars.

Assessment

The assessment is based on a home examination in the form of an essay of 3500 words.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.