Lectures on Formal Analysis by M Twist

Led by M Twist, the class attempts rhetorical analysies of the Avenue H subway stop in Brooklyn and the new Hudson Yards station in Manhattan. Introduction features a discussion of writing a rhetorical analysis paper.

Led by M Twist, the class attempts a rhetorical analysis of The New Museum in New York City.

Led by M Twist, the class attempts a rhetorical analysis of the Vignelli New York City subway map.

Led by M Twist, the class attempts a rhetorical analysis of the (new) Whitney Museum of American Art. Introduction features a short lecture on expression theory.

Led by M Twist, the class attempts a formal analysis of Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach". Introduction features a discussion of a method of writing a paper that is conducive to thinking in a formally analytic way.

M Twist explains how the expression theory of art is coherent with this theory of formal analysis through the ideas of philosopher R. G. Collingwood. Lecture delivered on May 2nd, 2014.

We want to call attention to the different kinds of methods that are cognates to these methods: There is a method called dialectic. There is always in dialectic an abstract general principle in virtue of which a thing is intelligible. There is an analytic method. There is always an underlying physical principle in virtue of which the thing is intelligible. By underlying I mean it’s actually the cause of the thing that you see, but you don’t actually see the cause. There is an operational method. There is always an operation of the person in virtue of which the thing is intelligible. The greek for methods is derived from the greek word for roads. It’s a good derivation; if you’re on one road you don’t see what you would see on other roads. How can we access the plurality of ways in which artists are artists? We need a method that calls attention to the plurality of methods as such. This method calls attention to the possibility of plural methods. It calls attention to the possibility of there being a multiplicity of principles. Lecture delivered on April 11th, 2014.

M Twist's Graduation Speech on The Virtues Delivered May 12th, 2016

"How do you know?" is one of the objections to a class in formal analysis. But, intention, like every other term that we’ve been dealing with is a philosophical term and it has a lot of different possible meanings. The question is, what does it mean in any given philosophical orientation. Again, words aren’t things that have one meaning, they have as many meanings as they can take on in the course of a discourse. Intention in the super sensible realm and the sensible realm would be: The Right Intention, to will the rational end. Ignorance, to will something other than the rational end. Intention as an antecedent mental event that is the cause of an external action. Intention as attributing a motive to someone else. Intention as an aesthetic intention. Formal intention, to solve a formal problem. Lecture delivered on April 4th, 2014.

The final lecture of the terminal Formal Analysis course: the philosophical upbringing, peak, and demise of the Scholar's Program and the resulting Formal Analysis course.

The meaning of criticism varies from one view of the arts to another. M Twist discuss moral criticism, technical criticism, reviewing and criticism as a learning. Lecture delivered on March 21st, 2014.

Lecture 4: The idea underlying Formal Analysis is not an idea you hear in any other kind of philosophical approach to the arts. Just to remind you: We were talking that art is an imitation of nature. We came up with the idea that if art is an imitation of changeless models then beauty is truth. If art is a cause of effects, that is to say, an imitation of natural causes, then the effect you want to bring about is pleasure, then beauty is pleasure. If art is a set of conventions, then beauty is conventional; socially constructed. Where do you get the conventions from? You get them from successful artists. If that’s what Beauty is, the question is who’s the audience? Lecture delivered on March 14th, 2014.

Lecture 3: An examination of the idea that art imitates nature. Lecture delivered on February 21st, 2014.

Lecture 2: We are taking the position that works of art are self-intelligible wholes. Now, we are contrasting that position to other positions taken by people who believe the intelligibility of the work lies in the historical epoch, or people who regard the work as a cause of effects and look for intelligibility in the causes and people who make subjective interpretations. Lecture delivered on February 14th, 2014.

Lectures on Formal Analysis by M Twist Lecture 1: The position taken is that artworks are self-intelligible wholes in contrast to other possible philosophical positions, namely context understood as a historical epoch, as an immediate antecedent events(immediate cause) and as a subjective experience of the reader. Lecture delivered on February 7th, 2014.