This course addresses key critical philosophies of modern aesthetics from the 18th Century to the present. It examines the relevance of aesthetic theory since the Enlightenment to developments in modern and contemporary art practice. Areas studied include the aesthetic theories of Kant, Hegel, the German Romantics, and Nietzsche, as well as approaches to aesthetics developed within poststructuralist, psychoanalytic and Marxist discourses. Themes investigated include debates between formalist and historicist aesthetic theories; the revival of aesthetic theory in the visual arts in recent decades; responses to the image culture of postmodernity; and the relationship between aesthetics and ethics. The course investigates how key currents of modern aesthetic theory might be applied and revised in light of broad social and cultural shifts, as well as developments in modern and contemporary art.