Draft:David Goldblatt

Born and raised in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, Goldblatt began his academic work at Pratt Institute's School of Architecture and then at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in philosophy in 1963. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972, with a dissertation on the later writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein.^[2]

During his graduate studies at Penn, Goldblatt served as a Teaching Fellow. His courses included an early Black Studies offering, The Philosophy of the Black Revolution. He later returned to Penn in 2016 to address the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and served as a critic and juror for graduate school final projects.

At Denison University, Goldblatt taught a wide range of courses, including social and political philosophy, ethical theory, and advanced seminars on Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, the philosophy of architecture, and philosophical issues in film. He also taught at Zhejiang University of Technology in Hangzhou, China (1999–2000), and spent a Robert C. Good Fellowship at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.^[3][4]

Goldblatt's scholarly output spans several decades and includes works spanning philosophy and the arts. His book Jazz and the Philosophy of the Arts, co-authored with Lee B. Brown and Theodore Gracyk (Routledge, 2017),^[5] explores jazz as a deeply embedded American cultural form, tracing its evolution from early dance music through bebop and small-venue performance, and examining its philosophical implications in comparison with other musical traditions. In his review of the book for the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism," The book was reviewed in several academic journals, including Philosophy in Review, and The British Journal of Aesthetics.^[6][7] In his review for the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Jonathan Neufeld described the book as "fascinating," noting that the logic of ventriloquism has "...direct or indirect parallels not only in the philosophy of art and in artistic practice, but in the philosophy of the self, and even in democratic theory."^[8]

His long-running anthology Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts (4th edition), co-edited with Lee B. Brown and Stephanie Patridge, has had a sustained presence in the field of aesthetics, notable for essays on vernacular, anonymous, and underrated art forms alongside canonical texts.^[9] As Kenneth E. Walden stated in his review of the book for the journal Teaching Philosophy, "If one wants to teach a course the engages the arts on all fronts and inspires students to reflect on their actual artistic experiences-instead of explaining who John Ogilby was-then this reader is an excellent companion."^[10]

Goldblatt's other anthology, The Aesthetics of Architecture: Philosophical Investigations into the Art of Building (Wiley/Blackwell, 2011), co-edited with Roger Paden, focused on architectural aesthetics,^[11] and is complemented by numerous related journal articles, including "Modern to Postmodern Architecture" to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics.^[12] His scholarly articles and essays address topics such as the aesthetics of movie stars, the ontology of architectural style, and intersections between philosophy and film. His work has appeared in journals such as The McNeese Review, Philosophy and Literature, Philosophy and Film, Architectural Design, Contemporary Aesthetics, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, and The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, where he published six essays, including the notable "Self-Plagiarism and Improvisation in Architecture."

Goldblatt's book Art and Ventriloquism (Routledge, 2005), published in the Critical Voices series edited by Saul Ostrow with an introduction by Garry Hagberg, examines ventriloquism as a performance art and uses it as a metaphor for issues of vocality and selfhood. The book includes essays on Socrates, early Nietzsche, Foucault, Stanley Cavell, and architect Peter Eisenman.^[13] This work has also been referenced in the British opera Before Sleep at the End of Love by Sarah Hardie.

Goldblatt has been an active participant in academic conferences and panels worldwide, among them serving as co-editor of the Newsletter of the American Society of Aesthetics from 2011 to 2017^[14] and member of the Editorial Board of Contemporary Aesthetics from 2004 to 2017, where he an Emeritus member of the board.^[15] He has also engaged in creative endeavors, including writing fiction and poetry,^{[16] [17]}and has served as an architectural critic and juror for the University of Michigan in 1997 and University of Pennsylvania in 2000. His commitment to intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and creative expression left a lasting mark on Denison University, where he was known for challenging students to think deeply, question assumptions, and engage with profound philosophical and artistic questions.