Essays should be five to six pages in length. The primary purpose of this paper is to develop a persuasive thesis about the material at stake. I do not expect you to carry out major research for your topic. Please do not hesitate to talk to me about your topic so as to discuss it in further detail. Due date is October 18, 2006.

• Discuss how different authos we have read this semester appraoch the task of writing about beauty. How does their writing about beauty differ from writing about other matters?
• Compare the notion of the beautiful in both Burke’s and Kant’s early treatise on the sublime and beautiful.
• Explore an object of your choice in terms of Burke’s notion of the sublime.
• Compare Scarry’s notion of justice through beauty to Schiller’s concept of aesthetic education.
• Compare Kant’s mature notion of the beautiful to how Sartwell defines beauty.
• Discuss an object of your choice in at least three of the notions of beauty provided by Sartwell.
• How would Plato respond to Schiller’s notion of aesthetic education?
• Which text on beauty so far might serve best in order to examine Rilke’s famous poem:

  Archaischer Torso Apollos
  Wir kannten nicht sein unerhörtes Haupt,
  darin die Augenäpfel reiften. Aber
  sein Torso glüht noch wie ein Kandelaber,
  in dem sein Schauen, nur zurückgeschraubt,
  sich hält und glänzt. Sonst könnte nicht der Bug
  der Brust dich blenden, und im leisen Drehen
  der Lenden könnte nicht ein Lächeln gehen
  zu jener Mitte, die die Zeugung trug.
  Sonst stünde dieser Stein enstellt und kurz
  unter der Schultern durchsichtigem Sturz
  und flimmerte nicht so wie Raubtierfelle;
  und brächte nicht aus allen seinen Rändern
  aus wie ein Stern: denn da ist keine Stelle,
  die dich nicht sieht. Du mußt dein Leben ändern.

  Archaic Torso of Apollo
  We never knew his fantastic head,
  where eyes like apples ripened. Yet
  his torso, like a lamp, still glows
  with his gaze which, although turned down low,
  lingers and shines. Else the prow of his breast
  couldn't dazzle you, nor in the slight twist
  of his loins could a smile run free
  through that center which held fertility.
  Else this stone would stand defaced and squat
  under the shoulders' diaphanous dive
  and not glisten like a predator's coat;
  and not from every edge explode
  like starlight: for there's not one spot
  that doesn't see you. You must change your life.
  (translated by H. Landman)