This course brings together two major modern disciplines. The study of the conditions of perception, or aesthetics, and the study of beliefs,values and modes of knowledge, or ideology, have sometimes been imagined as complementary and sometimes as in contention with one another. The review of these moments in a history of thought will enable understanding and assessment of the importance given to art in modern thought. The course will also enable assessment of revisions of the modern and the claims of critical thought with regard to art.