The Aesthetics of Compassion

In light of recent renewed interest in the meanings and mechanisms of empathy in such areas as ethics, visual studies, and the philosophy of the mind, this course examines the place and role of compassion in the development of the Western aesthetics tradition. Considering a range of art theoretical texts, literature, and images for which the theme of compassion has been thought able to account for certain of the emotional and cognitive links that exist between artwork and its audience.