Philosophy and Images 6864

LPHI 3021A

Seminar, Spring 2017, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:50-3.30 PM

Location: 6 E 16th Street, Room 1001

Instructor: Professor Chiara Bottici

Office: 6 E. 16th Street, Room 1019
Office hours: Thursdays, 2-3 PM
Email: botticic@newschool.edu

Course Description

What is an image? What, if anything, is the difference between a real image and a fictive image?
Can images be fully rendered through linguistic descriptions or is there something primordial
about them? What are unconscious images? Why have visual images been accorded such a
priority over other types of images (acoustic, tactile, etc.)? How, and when, do images become
art? What is the politics of images? How is the medium of their creation/reception/fruition
changing the phenomenology of images? Philosophy and images explores these questions at
the intersection of philosophy, aesthetics, psychoanalysis, politics and art. Students will discuss
classical texts in the philosophy of images and also apply them to practices of image-making,
ranging from visual arts to fashion, cinema and propaganda.

Course Requirements
1. Regular class attendance and participation in class discussion.
2. One oral presentation on a theoretical text to be put in discourse with an
artist/movement/media event. The aim of the presentation is to reconstruct the main
argument of the text and then try to apply it to the images to be discussed (noted in the
Images section for that week). For each session, a possible combination of
artist/movement/media event is suggested, but alternative combinations are also possible
if coordinated with the instructor in advance.
3. A term paper on a topic to be agreed upon with the instructor. Deadline: last day of class.

Evaluation:
30% oral presentation; 70% final paper.

Session 1. January 24-26: Online session (no-class meeting)

Please read the syllabus carefully and choose 2-3 sessions that may be interesting for you to
present on, so that on the first day of class we can distribute them. I strongly recommend that you
also check the readings online, to make sure you are familiar with the writing style of each of the
authors so that you have a clear sense of what you are signing up for. If you have any question,
please post them online.
At the same time, please prepare to discuss the readings for session 2 so that you get a clear
picture of the genealogical structure of the class and the types of debates we will cover.
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Session 2. January 31
Images beyond imagination: introduction and distribution of the oral presentations
1. Bottici, C. 2014. Imaginal Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, Intro, Ch. 1,
2, 3

I. VISUAL IMAGES
Session 3. February 2
In class-presentation by Daniel Horowitz
Readings:
Stereyl, H. In Defense of the Poor Image
Bottici, C. At the Beginning was the Imagination in Public Seminar
Bottici, C. and Webster, J. On the Philosophy and Psychoanalysis of the Image, in Public
Seminar

Session 4. February 7
Who banned the image? The visible versus the intelligible
Readings:
From Plato. 1991. The Republic, trans. Alan Bloom. New York: Basic Books
1. Book VI, 509c-511e (on the different types of knowledge expressed through the metaphor
of the line)
2. Book VII 514a-521c (on the myth of the cave)
3. Book X (on mimesis, the ban of the arts, and the power of philosophy beyond death)

Images:
Ancient Greek sculpture, Ancient Greek architecture

Session 5. February 9
Are we all neoplatonists? Icons and figures
Readings:
1. Freedberg, D. Imitation and its Discontents. Artistic Exchange, ed. Thomas W.
Gaehtgens. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, pp. 483-489
2. Dantes Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto I, Purgatorio, Canto I, Paradiso Canto I
3. Auerbach, E. 1984. Figura. Scenes from the Drama of European Literature.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 28-34; 52-55; 60-76

Images:
Russian icons, Byzantine art, Medieval Sacred Painting, Giotto frescos, Dantes Divine Comedy

Session 6. February 14
From the dignity of man to the dignity of images: the Renaissance manifesto
Readings:
Della Mirandola, P. 1486. Oration on the Dignity of Man. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, pp. 109-181

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Class Video Screening:
Berger, J. Ways of Seeing, Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk

Images:
Botticellis Minerva ed il Centauro, Leonardos Vitruvian Man, Renaissance art.

Session 7. February 16
Images allowed and images prohibited after the Counter-Reformation I
Readings:
Paleotti, G. 2012. Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images, trans. William McCuaig. Los
Angeles: Getty Publications; Book I: Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (pp. 55-82)

Background Reading:
Prodi, P. Introduction to Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images, pp. 1-35

Images:
Fra Angelico, Albrecht Dueher

Session 8. February 21
Images allowed and images prohibited after the Counter-Reformation II
Readings:
Paleotti, G. 2012. Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images, trans. William McCuaig. Los
Angeles: Getty Publications
1. Book I: Ch. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 (pp.111-122)
2. Book II: Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (pp. 157-164), Ch. 25, (pp 218-221), Ch. 51-52 (pp. 307-314)

Class Video Screening:

Berger, J. Ways of Seeing, Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1GI8mNU5Sg

Images:
Annibale Caracci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio

Session 9. February 23
Modern empiricism between politics and aesthetics: imagination as decaying sense and its
passions (fear, glory, competition)
Readings:
Hobbes, T. Leviathan. 2012 [1651]. New York: Penguin Classics, Introduction, Ch. 1, 2, 3, 6, 10,
11

Class Video Screening:

Berger, J. Ways of Seeing, Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7wi8jd7aC4

Images:
Vermeer, Hals, or other Dutch oil paintings

Session 10. February 28

The political aesthetic of glory: the civilized versus the savage
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Readings:
Hobbes, T. Leviathan. 2012 [1651]. New York: Penguin Classics, Ch. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.

Images:
Comparison of the two frontispieces of Hobbess Leviathan, seventeenth-century images of the
savages and the discovery of the new world.

Session 11. March 2

Kant and the universality of aesthetic judgments I
Readings:
From Kant, I. Critique of the Power of Judgment. 2000 [1790], trans. Paul Guyer and Eric
Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
1. Table of contents
2. Preface to the first edition
3. Introduction, . IV,
4. . 1-8, . 12-13, . 20-24, . 28

Images:
Caspar David Friedrich and the sublime in nature

Session 12. March 7

Kant and the universality of aesthetic judgments II
Readings:
Kant, I. Critique of the Power of Judgment. 2000 [1790], trans. Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, . 30-40, . 45-49

Images:
Egyptian pyramids, St. Peters Basilica, Duchamps ready made.

Session 13. March 9

Guest talk and presentation by Nancy Goldring

Session 14. March 14

Schillers play drive, or overcoming the dichotomy between sense drive and form drive I
Readings:
Schiller, F. On the Aesthetic Education of Man. 2004 [1794]. New York: Dover Publications,
Letters 1-15

Images:
Schillers plays; early romantic painting.

II. UNCONSCIOUS IMAGES

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Session 15. March 16
Unconscious images and the dream-work I
Readings:
Freud, S. Introductory Lectures to Psychoanalysis. 1966 (1917). New York: Norton, Lectures V
(only pp. 107-109), VII, VIII, IX, X (pp138-208)

Images:
Hitchcocks Spellbound (in particular Dalis dream sequence), Magritte, other surrealist
examples.

SPRING BREAK March 20-26

Session 16. March 28

Unconscious Images and Dream-work II
Readings:
Freud, S. Introductory Lectures to Psychoanalysis. 1966 (1917). New York: Norton, Lectures XI,
XII, XIII, XIV (pp 209-263)

Images:
Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, other surrealist examples.

Session 17. March 30

Guest talk and film screening by Wayne Wapeemukwa: Colonialism and exhibitionism
1. Lacan, J. Ecrits, The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function as Revealed in
Psychoanalytic Experience, pp.75-82
2. Laplanche, J., Pontalis, J.B. 1973. The Language of Psychoanalysis, trans. Donald
Nicholson-Smith. London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis
Entries: imago and imaginary
3. Evans, D. 1966. An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. London:
Routledge
Entry: imago

Session 18. April 4

The coloniality of images: Black Skin, White Masks I
Readings:
Fanon, F. Black Skin, White Masks, New York: Grove Press, chapt 1, 2, 3

Images: Concerning Violence, Daniel Horowitz Totem sans taboo

Session 19. April 6

The coloniality of images: Black Skin, White Masks II
With Guest Speaker Max Trembley
Readings:
Fanon, F. Black Skin, White Masks,. New York: Grove Press, chapt 6, 7, 8
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Images: Concerning Violence, Daniel Horowitz Totem sans taboo

III. TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SENSIBLE LIFE

Session 20. April 11
Towards a general theory of sensible life: animal life and the intentional species
Readings:
1. Coccia, E. 2016, Sensible Life, A Micro-ontology of the Image, Fordham UP, Chapters 1-
14

Images:
Compare visual, tactile and smelling images

Session 21. April 13

Towards a general theory of sensible life: from the metaphysics of clothing to its gender
Readings:

1. Coccia, E. 2016, Sensible Life, A Micro-ontology of the Image, Fordham UP, Chapters
15-32
2. Fluegel, J.C. The Great Masculine renunciation and its Causes, From the Psychology
of Clothes (1930), pp. 102-108.

Images:
Fashion images: compare men and women catwalks.

Session 22. April 18

The imaginal is spontaneous, primordial, given with the psyche itself: social and political
consequences
Readings:
Bottici, C. 2014. Imaginal Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, Ch. 4, 5, 6

Images:
Modern political maps, planisphere, global icons.

Session 23. April 20

The spectacle of the clash of civilizations and its icons
Readings:
1. Bottici, C. 2014. Imaginal Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, Ch. 7
2. Bottici, C and Challand, B. The Myth of the Clash of Civilisations, London, Routledge,
Ch. 2

Images:
Orientalist painters, Occidentalist vignettes, Disneys Aladdin, The Danish cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammed (but consider whether it is legitimate to show them in class, given that for
believers this is very offensive; an alternative could be describe them, without showing)
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IV. ACOUSTIC IMAGES
Session 24. April 25
Soundscapes: natural and artificial acoustic images
Readings:
Schaefer, M. 1977. The Soundscape. New York: Alfred Knopf, Introduction, Ch. 1, 5, 6

Images:
Bring your own soundscape!

Session 25. April 27

Musical images
Guest lecture by the Composer and Professor Stefania de Kenessey

IV. IMAGES AS OPERATIONS

Session 26. May 2.
Images in the age of mechanical reproduction
Readings:
Benjamin, W. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Images:
August Sander, Alexander Rodchenko, Eugene Atget, Karl Blossfelt, Germaine Krull, silent
movies.

Class Video Screening:

Berger, J. Ways of Seeing, Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jTUebm73IY

Session 27. May 4.

Guest Lecture by Tim Campbell
Readings:
Campbell, T. 2017, The Techne of Giving: Cinema and the Generous Form of Life, Fordham UP
Chapters to be announced.

Session 28. May 9.

Images as operations.
Readings:
1. Ranciere, J. 2007. The Future of the Image, trans. G. Elliott. London: Verso Books, pp. 1-
31
2. Lafia, M. 2014, Image Photograph. New York: Punctum Press
https://punctumbooks.com/titles/everyday-cinema-the-films-of-marc-lafia/

Images:
Duchamp, Maurizio Catelan, J-L. Godard, Marc Lafia in class presentation

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Session 29. May 11.
Guest Presentation by Marc Lafia: From the Moving Image to Everyday Cinema
Readings:
Lafia, M. 2017. Everyday Cinema. New York: Punctum Press
https://punctumbooks.com/titles/image-photograph/

Session 30. May 16

Papers due!

Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else's work as one's own in all forms of
academic endeavor (such as essays, theses, examinations, research data, creative projects, etc),
intentional or unintentional. Plagiarized material may be derived from a variety of sources, such
as books, journals, internet postings, student or faculty papers, etc. This includes the purchase or
outsourcing of written assignments for a course. A detailed definition of plagiarism in research
and writing can be found in the fourth edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers, pages 26-29. Procedures concerning allegations of plagiarism and penalties are set forth
in the Lang catalog. The NSSR plagiarism policy is described at
http://www.newschool.edu/nssr/subpage.aspx?id=9256

Disabilities:
In keeping with the University's policy of providing equal access to students with disabilities,
any student requesting accommodations must first meet with Student Disability Services. A
designee from that office will meet with students requesting accommodations and related
services and, if appropriate, provide an Academic Adjustment Notice for the student to provide to
his or her instructors. The instructor is required to review the letter with the student and discuss
the accommodations, provided the student brings the letter to the attention of the instructor. This
letter is necessary in order for classroom accommodations to be provided. Student Disability
Services is located at 79 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor. The phone number is (212) 229-5626. Students
and faculty are expected to review the Student Disability Services Web page. The Web page can
be found at
http://www.newschool.edu/studentservices/disability/

Minorities:
There is good evidence to suggest that implicit or unconscious bias is a serious issue in academic
philosophy, and that it puts women and members of other underrepresented groups at a
substantial disadvantage. One recommended strategy for combating bias is to attend carefully to
how one interacts with other members of the classroom (e.g., what form of address is used, how
often speaking time is granted and to whom, and how much time individual students spend
speaking). Throughout the semester, I will monitor my own practice with an eye to being fair to
all, and I strongly invite all the participants to this seminar to do the same on their own part.

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