The thesis explores the relationships between knowledge and knowing in contemporary 21st century information society, using the foundation of the Faculty of Media Design & New Media Art at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milano as a research apparatus. This Faculty was established between 2003 and 2012, in Milano, Italy. The starting point of the research was established in the hypothesis that technics have tertiarised memory (Stiegler B., 1994), that knowledge is always founded on an ontological pessimism (Queneau R., 1933, Lyotard F., 1979) and on a perpetual process of the generation of meaning (Gadda C., 1923-29, Foucault M., 1966). Knowledge is always and inevitably linked to the technics with which it is passed on. Pedagogy becomes a questioning of the object of knowledge, which transmutes into a definition of the ways it can be visualised. This research then, setting out from a pessimistic position in relation to knowledge and truth, amplifies them to infinite possible forms and therefore causes a dual shift of philosophy towards art and of pedagogy towards hermeneutics. The methodology consisted of a textual and visual description of a territory in a cartography of meaning, seen as the relation between intuition and the way in which practices as knowledges, arts, form remnants.

This dissertation enquires into the nature and value of a phenomenon which is typically found in art. Chapter 1 attempts to get clear on what phenomenon is being discussed by considering various thinkers' attempts to talk about it, and by considering artworks which exemplify (or are) it. I call the phenomenon 'art' and roughly characterise it as the expression of emotion. Chapter 2 considers the role of artists' intentions to the meaning of the artworks they create, and more broadly the role of utterers' intentions to the meanings of their utterances. This is done because certain positions regarding the role of intentions to utterances' meanings breaks the communicative link between the utterer of an utterance and the apprehender of the utterance, which link is important to the thesis advanced. Chapter 3 argues for a particular analysis of what I call art in Chapter 1, and briefly argues that it is very valuable.

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D.Litt. et Phil. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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The purpose of this comparison and analysis was to examine the tenets of expressionism and existentialism as found in the aesthetic theories of Robin G. Collingwood and Eugene F. Kaelin, respectively. It was felt that both aesthetics proper, as a philosophic concern, and educational practices in art could benefit by the tenets of these two theories. In addition, many of the concepts explored were found to be mutually complementary not only in a logical sense but also in terms of clarifying the process of creation of works of art as well as contributing a pellucid view of response to art works.

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This Thesis critically examines the moral possibilities of mass art. Mass art is often dismissed by critics as pseudo or ersatz art, described as 'kitsch' and lacking in aesthetic and moral value. I will critically examine several definitions of mass art which argue whether or not mass art can and should be classified as art qua art, and what its moral possibilities are given that definition. I focus my analysis on the theories proposed by Noel Carroll, Clement Greenberg, R. G. Collingwood, Dwight MacDonald, Walter Benjamin, T. W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer with a view to defending a positive account of mass art as art with moral capabilities while also arguing that the ethical concerns raised by Adorno and Horkheimer must be taken seriously. After examining the aesthetic and ethical issues that are raised by mass art and how these inter-relate, I explore the link between aesthetic and ethical education. Drawing upon Martha Nussbaum's theory of literary education, I outline a supplementary moral theory that I term