Varieties of realism: aesthetics, politics, philosophy

In partnership with Brendan Hogan, Chair, Politics, Rights, & Development, Global Liberal Studies, NYU; Organized by: Sandra Laugier, Brendan Hogan, Yann Toma

One of the most disputed questions regarding the politics of our times focuses on the questions of ‘truth’ , ‘facts’ , ‘objectivity’ and the challenge that a multitude of social and political forces present to the stability of these concepts in myriad ways, all within a novel media ecology. The question of ‘what is possible?’ for instance, often engenders the claim of ‘realism’ as a challenge to political projects perceived to be fantastic or utopian. In aesthetics, the question registers in a different, though related, fashion with respect to the history of plastic arts. An issue that has only intensified with the introduction of accelerated forms of technology highlighting the contrast between the ‘virtual’ and the ‘real’. In philosophy the history of the question of reality and realism is as old as the practice itself in terms of the world we live in, the language we use to describe it, and how we understand ourselves and our individual experience. This conference gathers an interdisciplinary group of scholars to rethink the question of realism and aesthetics in light of these various perspectives.

Speakers: Richard Shusterman, Jocelyn Benoist, Paola Marrati, Mathias Girel, Juliet Floyd, Martin Shuster, Jeroen Gerrits, Hent de Vries

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