Sibelius Academy Department of Music Education presents
A Lecture by
Professor Richard Shusterman, Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in
the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic
University, USA
Monday June 8, 2009 12.15-13.45
Tieteiden talo, Hall 104 (first floor), Kirkkokatu 6, Helsinki
Art as a Substitute for Religion
Since the nineteenth century, some important thinkers have argued that
art could supplant traditional religion as the spiritual locus of the
increasingly secular society of Western modernity. If art can embody
the spirituality, idealism, hope, and expressive community of
traditional religions, but without being ensnared in the particular
doctrines, rituals, and historical conflicts that make these religions
such a persistent source of intellectual disbelief and transcultural
discord, can art then provide a sturdy bridge between cultures that
historical religions have violently divided? Can art achieve the
spiritual transformation and unification of humanity that traditional
religions never seem to achieve? This paper examines the promise but
also the problems of this proposal, by considering not only the
arguments of philosophers but also different religious attitudes
exemplified in art and aesthetic experience (both in Western and in
East-Asian culture).
---
Open access to everyone. Welcome!