Next Week: Plato on Poetry and Genius

7 Feb

For the first half of 2025 the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group will take on the philosophical problems of art. We’ll ask questions like: What is a work of art? Where does the impulse toward art come from? What is symbolism? What distinguishes art from craft? What is the role of genius? Is art possible in the capitalist world of modernity?

Up Next: 02/11 – Plato. Ion.

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

Location: Yinz Coffee in Bloomfield (Liberty Ave), most Tuesday evenings 6:30-8:30pm.

SCHEDULE:

  • 02/04 – Giedion, S. “Art a Fundamental Experience” and “The Symbol in Primeval Art” in The Eternal Present: the Beginnings of Art
  • 02/11 – Plato. Ion.
  • 02/18 – Aristotle. Poetics.
  • 02/25 – Kant, Immanuel. Critique of the Power of Judgment, §§46-53.
  • 03/04 – Hegel, G.W.F. “Religion in the Form of Art” in Phenomenology of Spirit.
  • 03/11 – Schopenhauer, Arthur. World as Will and Representation, §§TBD
  • 03/18 – Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in Illuminations.
  • 03/25 – Heidegger, Martin. “The Origin of the Work of Art” in Basic Writings.
  • 04/01 – Sartre, Jean-Paul. “What is Writing?” in What is Literature.
  • 04/08 – Levinas, Emmanual. “Reality and its Shadow” in Collected Philosophical Papers.
  • 04/15 – Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. “Cezanne’s Doubt” in Sense and Nonsense.
  • 04/22 – Albers, Anni. “Tactile Sensibility,” “Tapestry,” and “Designing as Visual Organization” in On Weaving.
  • 04/29 – Barthes, Roland. “The Death of the Author”
  • 05/06 – Adorno, Theodor. “Toward a Theory of the Artwork” in Aesthetic Theory.
  • 05/13 – Foucault, Michel. This is Not a Pipe
  • 05/20 – Bachelard, Gaston. “Introduction” in The Poetics of Reverie
  • 05/27 – Sontag, Susan. “The Image-World” in On Photography.
  • 06/03 – Derrida, Jacques. “Passe-Partout” in Truth in Painting.
  • 06/10 – Deleuze, Gilles. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation, Chapter TBD.
  • 06/17 – Danto, Arthur. Transformation of the Commonplace
  • 06/24 – Henry, Michel. “The Essence of Art” and “All Painting is Abstract” in Seeing the Invisible.
  • 07/01 – Henderson, P.L. “Fiber Sculpture” in Unravelling Women’s Art: Creators, Rebels, & Innovators in Textile Arts

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

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