Art and the Desire for God

A special lecture from November 2018 from Prof Roger Pouivet.

Art and the Desire for God - A Thomistic Perspective in Aesthetics

Many philosophers claim that philosophy must question the nature of “aesthetic experience” Consequently, “Aesthetics” is mainly devoted to the description of this assumed aesthetic experience. My intention now is to try to show that this modern account, defining a large part of Aesthetics as a discipline, does not allow a correct description of our aesthetic life. Criticism of this modern and contemporary conception will be followed by the defence of a completely different thesis: 1) aesthetic properties are really possessed by the things to which they are rightly attributed (against aesthetic antirealism); 2) works of art are artifacts which function aesthetically (against artistic antirealism); and 3) we a ...