I would argue that Heidegger’s account of art unconcealing a world is still relevant to contemporary art and would use the example of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica to elaborate this point. Like Heidegger’s own example of the Ancient Greek Temple which “first gives to things their look and to men their outlook on themselves”, Picasso’s Guernica … Continue reading The incomplete Heideggerian World
The incursion of modernity upon civilisation brought along with its many benefits a crisis of identity for the human being. This crisis of identity, generally speaking, can be divided in its fragmentation of the human’s ability to perceive one’s self through introspection and extrospection. That is to say, how one harmonises oneself within the chaos … Continue reading Modernism & the Human Mosaic
Rebecca Goldstein presents the following cosmological argument, as an alteration of St. Thomas Aquinas' Second Way: Everything that exists must have a cause (Premise) (Therefore) The universe must have a cause (From 1) Nothing can be the cause of itself. (Premise) (Therefore) The universe cannot be the cause of itself. (From 3) (Therefore) Something outside … Continue reading Can Aquinas’ Second Way be improved?
John Leslie Mackie, as part of his overarching problem of evil argument, discusses the possible rebuttal that the universe containing some evil is better than it could be if it had none. Mackie dismisses this claim through assigning general goods and evils to an ordered system, the conclusion of that system which Mackie argues displays … Continue reading The Problem of John Leslie Mackie’s Problem of Evil
Jean-François Lyotard’s analysis of Barnett Newman’s paintings is that their genius is found in their disintegration of the triadic system of art being an event between the sender, the recipient, and the referent (1998, p. 81). In other words “the message is the messenger; it says: ‘Here I am’ ” (1998, p. 81). Lyotard argues … Continue reading Art within Time: Lyotard, Newman & Tarkovsky
In The Fate of Art, Bernstein argues that art in modernity contains an aporia as compared to ages past. In this essay, I will reconstruct what he means in terms of this aporia and will also critically evaluate his argument for what this disjunction entails for art and aesthetics. This aporia is caused by art … Continue reading Aesthetic Alienation
Christianity and paganism appear alongside each other in the poem of Beowulf. The relationship in the text between these two seemingly incompatible belief systems. The poem of Beowulf is unique in being composed in a period of history roughly placed between paganism and Christianity. As a logical reflection of this context, the content of the … Continue reading Christianity and Paganism in Beowulf
