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Document: Calvin Seerveld, ANAKAINOSIS: The Status of Aesthetic Theory in English-speaking Canada (Toronto, ON.: Wedge Publishing Foundation, 1977).
Excerpt: Although the data is not plentiful for assessing the status of philosophical aesthetics in English-speaking Canada, certain points may be fairly stated: (1) Aesthetics is formally taught as a philosophical discipline. Introductory courses and intermediate seminars follow quite traditional patterns, exposing students to the roster of possible positions on the nature, purpose, and integration of art in human society. (2) Aesthetics is informally taught in the fields of comparative literature, art history, and semiotics. Problems of text interpretation and principles of criticism naturally surface in literary studies. specially in advanced seminars, the issues of criteria for aesthetic judgment and the current debates in hermeneutic theory come to the fore. As a matter of curricular fact, aesthetics is a step-child in Canada. As in most North American, academic settings, aesthetic theory maintains an uneasy existence somewhere in between epistemology and value theory in a philosophy department.
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Anakainosis, Vol. 7 No. 1-2: The Status of Aesthetic Theory in English-speaking Canada – C. Seerveld.pdf