Image Theory

Catalog description

Philosophers have long suggested that images play a negative role in thinking, substituting fantasy for reality or obscuring the abstraction necessary for rigorous conceptualization. This seminar explores alternative positive accounts of the nature and impact of images on thought drawn from early twentieth century critical cultural theory (Warburg, Benjamin), recent epistemic image / diagrammatic theory emerging from history and philosophy of science (Kusukawa, Luethy), ?image-act? theory in art history (Bal, Bredekamp), as well as philosophers seeking to radically reconfigure the thought of image (Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze). Seminar. Offered irregularly.