Discussion Post
Write a letter to Leo Tolstoy or Clive Bell. In your letter, describe to the author your personal responses their text. Your letter should describe your responses and the reasons for them. The letter can take any form you like as long as it is a response to the reading you chose. You may write in any voice you like as long as it allows you to take the assignment seriously. You are free to refer to actual artists and artworks, to (correctly!) use technical terminology from philosophy and other disciplines, and to make use of information you learned in classes in addition to this one. It is ok to refer to information that was not available to the author you are writing to and to assume your chosen author has the imagination to follow your discussion, as long as you make your assumptions clear. So, for example, you may refer to art and artists and historical events from periods after your chosen author's lifetime.
Be sure to give enough information so that your reader can tell which ideas or concepts you are talking about. You can use a hypothetical classmate as an approximate listener, i.e., what would another student in PHL 360 need to know to identify the concept you have in mind and to understand your response?
If you need help getting started, consider addressing one of these questions:
• In what ways do you find the author's ideas are consistent with your own experiences of art?
• Are there ways you would modify the author's ideas?
• Do you have questions for the author you chose and why did they arise?
• Do you see revealing connections, directions, or conflicts within the author's ideas?
• Do you see connections between an author's context and their thinking?
The response must include a reference list. Using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, double-space, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.