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What is an Image? Philosophical Reflections

Class at Faculty of Arts |
ASZFS0065

Annotation

ERASMUS STUDENTS SHOULD ENROLL IN THE PARALLEL CODE: FSV00425 What is an Image? Philosophical Reflections

LS/SS 2024

Charles University

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

(Non-Philosophy Majors)

Daniele De Santis, Ph. D.

Office hours: Thursday 14:30-15:30

Email: daniele.desantis@ff.cuni.cz

What is an Image? Philosophical Reflections

(Wednesday 10:50-12:30)

Room: P131 1. General Description and Aims of the Module

There is no doubt that the ontological status of what we refer to as “image” has been haunting philosophy for centuries, if not even since the very beginning of Western thought. By the same token, the structure of a “painting,” of the way in which it is supposed to reveal and disclose something to the observer testifies to a quite specific form of experience of the world. The present module’s aim is to analyze these two questions from the standpoint of a quite specific 20th century philosophical tradition, namely, phenomenology. The course will pursue a double ambition. On the one had, it will try to shed light of what it means to experience an image, or, better: it will try to clarify what an image is based upon our conscious experience of it. On the other hand, and based on the central concept of phenomenology, namely, “phenomenon,” our goal will to be verify in what sense and to what extent phenomenology’s stance on what a painting is can shed light on the notion itself of phenomenon, and vice versa (as is the case, for example, with Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Michel Henry).

Study programmes