A thematic project by Dieter Roelstraete (October 2010-January 2011)

This seminar is precisely what its title wants it to be: a history of the relationship between art and philosophy within the broader context of culture (‘ideas’) more generally that tries to strike a balance between the large and the small, and does so in a radically non-linear, zig-zagging manner, making plentiful use of whatever medium (text, music, film, field trips) is at hand. Each seminar will depart from a given place at a given time in history —from 4^th century BC Athens to Paris, 1968—to uncover the wealth of ideas that have sprung from these places to inspire and influence cultural production in particular. Treating many a ‘classic’ from the history of philosophy in the least classical manner imaginable, this seminar will attempt to map the terrain vague where art and philosophy meet to the practical benefit of both, as an aesthetic enterprise in itself.

Some focal points: Ionian and Athenian beginnings; Jena anno 1800, or the flowering of German Idealism; Nietzsche’s alpine experience; the Weimar years of Heidegger et al.; Frankfurt before and after the war, home of Critical Theory; 1968 and the birth of ‘French Theory’. Maps, charts and timetables an essential part of the exercise.