ABSTRACT

In this paper, I offer a defence of aesthetic education in terms of aesthetic experience, claiming that aesthetic experience and art appreciation is a vital component of a flourishing life. Given schools have an important role to play in helping prepare young people for their adult lives, it is crucial they should consider how best to equip students with the means to achieve a flourishing life. It is on these grounds I defend arts education as compulsory across the curriculum. In order to adopt this position, I firstly critically engage with two competing defences of including the arts on the curriculum on the basis of firstly, the role art has to play in supporting self-expression, and secondly, a defence of the arts in relation to their role in supporting moral improvement. After explaining why these arguments fail to do the work required to defend aesthetic education as thoroughly as is needed, I turn to the defence based on aesthetic experience because it allows for a defence of the arts to be made on the basis of art’s distinctive value.

摘要

在本文中，我从审美体验的角度为审美教育辩护，声称审美体验和艺术欣赏是繁荣生活的重要组成部分。鉴于学校在帮助年轻人为成年生活做好准备方面发挥着重要作用，因此他们应该考虑如何最好地为学生提供实现繁荣生活的手段，这一点至关重要。正是基于这些理由，我认为艺术教育是整个课程的必修课。为了采取这一立场，我首先批判性地参与了将艺术纳入课程的两个相互竞争的辩护，其基础是第一，艺术在支持自我表达中所扮演的角色，第二，艺术与关系的辩护以他们在支持道德改善方面的作用。