This seminar considers some of the major aesthetic philosophies to emerge from the eighteenth century whose impact on current thinking about artistic and architectural practice continues to be felt. Our point of departure will be the vital and substantial exchange between philosophical concepts and aesthetic theory that sits at the core of much of Enlightenment thought. Readings and discussions will then focus on how the ideas of Burke, Diderot, Kant, Lessing, and Winckelmann inform contemporary debate about the meaning of aesthetic activity (in Baxandall, Barthes, Fried, Greenberg, Lyotard and so on). Topics include: imitation, encyclopedism, the ideal, the rise of historicism, word and image, the language of the senses, the experience of the sublime. Students will be responsible for 1-2 page responses to readings to be discussed during weekly meetings as well as a 20-minute presentation serving as preface to a longer research paper due at the end of term.