Philosophy of Museums

Anthropology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria S. Harrison ◽  
Philip Tonner
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Museum Studies ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Museum Management ◽  
Distinct Area ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Parent Discipline ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Museums and their practices of collection, curation, and exhibition raise a host of philosophical questions. The philosophy of museums is a relatively new and growing subdiscipline within the academic field of philosophy. While only recently taking shape as a distinct area, this subdiscipline builds upon a tradition of interest in museums that has been taken up by prominent philosophers, such as Theodor Adorno (Prisms 1967) and Michel Foucault (Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology 1998). Philosophers active in the philosophy of museums are less concerned with intra-disciplinary differences (between, e.g., “continental philosophy” and “analytic philosophy” and their recent permutations) than they are with thinking about the museum on its own terms as a phenomenon calling for philosophical engagement. Indeed, as Beth Lord put it, the basic conviction among scholars in this area is that “philosophy can help us to think about museums, [and] . . . that museums can contribute to philosophical thinking” (Philosophy and the museum. Museum Management and Curatorship 21.2 (2006): 80). As such, the promise of the philosophy of museums is that, despite it being a subfield of a larger discipline, it will enable a fresh look at its parent discipline while also prompting the development of new perspectives on more traditional philosophical questions. Philosophical approaches will also help us to understand museums and their objects in myriad new ways, as this emerging discipline within the broad church of philosophy matures over the coming years. Although many of the philosophical questions raised by museums are ethical, the philosophy of museums goes beyond the confines of any single established area of philosophy, such as ethics, aesthetics, or metaphysics. Work within the philosophy of museums thus now ranges over themes such as philosophical museology, the epistemological and ethical dimension of humanity and social life, culture, and religion, as well as those more directly connected to issues arising from museum practices of curation, conservation, and exhibition. The philosophy of museums is not entirely independent of scholarship within the field of museum studies, therefore, this article makes reference not only to works that are philosophical in a narrow sense but also to work of philosophical interest within museum studies and more occasionally to scholarship within other disciplines such as anthropology and history.

scholarly journals Museumsforskning som museumsutvikling

1970 ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Anders Johansen
Keyword(s):  
Museum Studies ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Analytical Skills ◽  
University Courses ◽  
Strategic Value ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Cultural Public Sphere ◽  
The University ◽  
Systematic Knowledge

Museum studies as museum development This text points to the strategic value of museological studies for the development of the museum sector. In Norway, the museum is the sole exception to the rule that a medium or a cultural institution of any importance be regarded as an academic field of study. Lacking the kind of systematic knowledge, critical reflection and discussion of basic premises which normally originate in independent outsider positions, Norwegian museums are consequently deprived of a vital stimulus. In the case of the university museums, the absence of attention to common, specifically museum related problems is seen as an obstacle to che development of coherent institutions out of the various scientific disciplines. In a wider perspective, museums are seen as being not fully established within the cultural public sphere. The enviable attention paid to other kinds of cultural products partly depends on university courses furnishing critics, reviewers and debaters with descriptive languages, analytical skills and evaluative standards. Without these courses, and without the research activity chat makes chem possible, even literature, painting, and film would miss che kind of qualified conversations that actually mediate between creative activity and the interests of a wider public. Hence the establishment of a museological field of research is seen as a precondition for comparable activities highlighting museum events, pointing out their more or less interesting problematics and their possible relevance to society. 

TALKING TO OURSELVES? ACADEMIC PHILOSOPHY AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE

Think ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (37) ◽  
pp. 57-72
Author(s):  
Chris Norris
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
The Self ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
The Public ◽  
Current State ◽  
Academic Philosophy ◽  
The Public Sphere

This essay takes a hard look at the current state of much academic (mainly analytic) philosophy and sets out to diagnose where things have gone wrong. It offers a sharply critical assessment of the prevailing narrowness, cliquishness, linguistic inertness, like-mindedness, intellectual caution, misplaced scientism, over-specialisation, guild mentality, lack of creative or inventive flair, and above all the self-perpetuating structures of privilege and patronage that have worked to produce this depressing situation. On the constructive side I suggest how a belated encounter with developments beyond its cultural-professional horizons – including certain aspects of ‘continental’ philosophy – might bring large (and reciprocal) benefits. I also offer some tentative ideas as to what ‘creativity’ could or should mean as applied to philosophical thinking and writing.

scholarly journals Making Art from Uncertainty: Magic and Its Politics in South African Rugby

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 699-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Franz Boas ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Rugby Players

This essay examines the intersection of the politics of post-apartheid South Africa and the politics of playing rugby. It traces the sport’s history through its manifestations in the apartheid state and the anti-apartheid struggle, but it also shows that South African rugby counts for more than the sum of these histories. Drawing inspiration from the writings of Claude Lévi-Strauss and Franz Boas, as well as from the aesthetic theory of Theodor Adorno, the article argues that rugby contains an inherent dimension of unpredictability that allows it to recombine and challenge the symbols and sentiments assigned to it. Considered in this way, rugby acquires a measure of autonomy as a social production, shaping possibilities and entering into existing political conversations with its own voice. Acknowledging this small space of unpredictability, then, carries important implications for how we theorize sporting performances in relation to other forms of creative expression. Rugby players, coaches, and teams, for their part, are well aware of the sport’s autonomous dimension, and they know that they must negotiate the uncertainty of the sport if they wish to participate at all. These social actors regard uncertainty as a problem to be solved, and they conceptualize and work through rugby’s layering of unpredictable instant atop unpredictable instant in socially and historically specific ways. As a result, the negotiations between South Africans and their rugby become a powerful heuristic for post-apartheid social life, and they produce not only violence and injuries but also moments of magic thick with political significance.

Heavenly Law (Tiandao) and Its Change by Time (Shibian): The Revival of Confucianism in the North Song Dynasty and Its Philosophy of History Based on the Interpretations of Yijing

KronoScope ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-92
Author(s):  
Weiwen Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Ideal World ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Decision Making ◽  
Book Of Changes ◽  
Philosophical Questions ◽  
Human Social Life

The Neo-Confucians in the North Song dynasty pursued the GreatDaoin Confucian Classics and conceptualized it as the highest rational principle and cultural spirit, which is known asTiandao天道 (the Heavenly Law) orTianli天理 (the Heavenly Principle), so as to restrain imperial authority and to provide guidance for political and economic decision-making.1 This was one of the fundamental reasons for the revival of Confucianism in the North Song period. Confucianism has a profound historical and cultural consciousness; it acknowledges the reasons for the changing nature of human social life, and it discourages people from abandoning this worldly life for a heavenly paradise. InYijing(The Book of Changes), the emphasis on the idea ofSheng Sheng生生 (ceaseless/creative creativity), morality and social norms coincides with the ethos of Confucianism. The Confucians’ effort in interpretingYijingcontributed to he revival of Confucianism in the North Song dynasty. By outlining the blueprint of an ideal world, they hoped to bring social development back on track. As a result, they had in-depth discussions on a number of philosophical questions, such as the end goal of history, social structure, social change, momentum, and laws of historical development. The neo-Confucianism in the North Song dynasty can be regarded as including a philosophy of history.

scholarly journals The Note on the Humanities and Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-31
Author(s):  
Theodor W. Adorno
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
West Germany ◽  
University Education ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
Natural Factor ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Mass Ideology ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Individual

The article “The Note on the Humanities and Education” by the german social philosopher Theodor Adorno, a representative of the critical theory of society, was published in 1962. In this philosophical-educational work Theodor Adorno continued the preliminary theme of his critical consideration of the unity of the elements of the culture of the industrial-mass society, which contribute to establishment in social life of industrial-mass ideology as completely dominant. In his philosophical-educational works Theodor Adorno also carried out a critical attack on the school and university education of post-war West Germany. According to the philosopher, this education remains traditionally unchanged, which makes it impossible for any serious anti-ideological transformation in its system. Such changes because of updated educational process could have contributed to the upbringing of a young citizen, a conscious and active participant in democratic transformations in the post-totalitarian society. However, according to Theodor Adorno, the educational process in the unreformed university remains controlled primarily of the agents of the scholarly consciousness, which in no way contributes to the anti-ideological upbringing of students.  In this work Theodore Adorno noted the special significance of the humanities, which in German are translated as “sciences about the spirit”, which traditionally present in German university education. In his opinion, the humanities, as the sciences about the spirit, because of the prevalence in the educational process of the “dictates of the scientific ideal” lost the presence in itself of a factor of the individual human spirit. Theodor Adorno called of the signs of the presence of such a phenomenon in university education: the absolute priority of scientific research among humanities study, the lack of personal pedagogical work of a university teacher with a student of humanities, the tendency of struggle of the agent of the reified scientific consciousness against any different knowledge, the unity of the social and theoretical conformism of the agent of that conceptual consciousness. As in his other philosophical works, Theodore Adorno proposed to perceive of personal activity of a human, what is due to the strength of his individual spirit, the natural factor that is capable of conducting a continuous personal struggle with negative phenomena in education, which ideologically influence to the educational process at the university and in education in general.

scholarly journals Food Studies and Communication

Communication ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Parasecoli
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Interior Design ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Food Studies ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Textual Representations ◽  
Class And Status

Food is much more than fuel for our bodies. It is an essential part of human cultures, and as such it carries meanings that shape and reflect individual and communal identities in terms of race, ethnicity, class, age, social class, and status, among others. It is both deeply physical and highly symbolic. Challenging the fundamental opposition between inside and outside, eating requires ingestion, bringing the outside inside, which is both exciting and terrifying. For this reason, food is both a source of pleasure and comfort and a cause for anxieties and concerns ranging from purity to propriety, heath, and wellness, just to mention a few. All food communicates meaning. We are implicitly trained to get cues from the world that surrounds us, and food is not excluded from these dynamics. We can obtain information from products and ingredients; from dishes and recipes; from the material objects that surround the act of eating, from tableware to furniture, interior design, built environments such as markets, stores, and supermarkets; from urban design and landscapes; from performative acts that include selling, cooking, serving, and eating food, as well as even disposing of leftovers; from every component of food systems, from agricultural production to manufacturing, packaging, transportation, distribution, trade, retail, and consumption; invisible infrastructures such as supply chains, cold chains, and more recently electronic traceability and blockchain. This bibliographical article focuses on the study of the intentional forms of communication that revolve around material, visual, and textual representations of food, and how they reflect, shape, or at times even problematize the explicit and implicit meanings food is able to generate. Research on these matters has grown in recent years with the emergence and growth of food studies as an interdisciplinary academic field. However, scholars from other disciplines, from literary studies to art history, media studies, gender studies, and politics, have engaged with the role of food in communication, often embracing multidisciplinary approaches in dialogue with food studies. The article is divided in two parts. The first part examines publications that look at food in different means of communication, from TV to fine arts and digital media, investigating the specificities of each means in its relationship with food discourse and practices. The second part instead explores research on food representations in the communication that involves different aspects of cultural and social life, from gender to politics. Some overlapping between the two sections is inevitable, but nevertheless the organization of the bibliographical entries in these two large sections can help the reader better navigate the content of the article and the rapidly expanding literature.

Communication and Media Theory

2011 ◽  
pp. 342-344
Author(s):  
Gary A. Berg
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
New Media ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Communications Theory ◽  
Effects Of Media ◽  
The University

Communications theory dates to the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, but became a recognized academic field in the 1940s during World War II (Newby, Stepich, Lehman, & Russell, 1996). Media theorists have analyzed the development of new media and how they are connected to broader social evolution. These theories are useful to examine in regard to understanding computer learning environments as a new medium because they place it in a larger historical context. A tradition of scholarship focusing on communications effects led to research on media industries and military uses. Many scholars concentrate simply on the short-term effects of media (Klapper, 1960). However, others look at media more broadly, particularly in terms of the transmission of ideology. An important influence on media theory was the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, where a theory showing the importance of communication in social life using ethnographic research methods to explore complex social interactions emerged.

Hegel, Hölderlin and we, the ukrainians, or: is it worse to accept recommendations of the german idealism?

2021 ◽  
Vol - (2) ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Maria Kultaieva
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
Philosophical Education ◽  
Cultural Transformations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University

The article represents the explication of some Hegel’s ideas with coherence to Hölderlin’s philosophical reflections, all of which are dealing with the problem of making more significant the philosophy for the social life especially in the period of the national self-statement and radical cultural transformations on the crossing of the XVIII-th and XIX-th centuries. The communication between Hegel and Hölderlin shows the different ways of making philosophy more available for lower classes of population. Hölderlin’s considering on this problem was to make philosophical thinking more sensuous through its transforming into a new rational religion. Hegel perceived solving of this problem in education and teaching without reducing standards of philosophy as a science. The university philosophy with its abstract concepts and systems was criticized by Hölderlin and accepted by Hegel, because his aim was to activate the social and orientation functions of philosophical ideas. The popular philosophy with its metaphorical language was regarded by him as preparing for fundamental philosophical studies. The role of the philosophical lyric in the evolution of German Idealism is analyzed with its impulses for the renewal of philosophical thinking. Hegel shows some risks of symbiosis of the lyric and philosophy such as losing its freedom and turning into a new mythology with eclipse of reason. Hegel emphasizes the role of the grammar of philosophical thinking: its concepts and categories. The dialectical potential of concepts is illustrated on their cunning possibility what might be regarded as opening of closed systems. The adaptation possibilities of this theoretical and practical experience to the Ukrainian social and cultural contexts are regarded. Hegel’s interpretation of the dialectical interconnection existing between the philosophical creativity and the philosophical education for the foundation of the philosophical inquiring culture are actual today as well his demand to search for the truth. The causes for explaining Hegel’s intuitions about the concept’s and reason’s cunning are stating in their validity for developing strategies and practices of the spiritual renewal of the Ukrainian society.

A Desire Called America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian P. Haines
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
Nineteenth Century Literature ◽  
American Hegemony ◽  
The Relationship

A Desire Called America examines the relationship between American exceptionalism and U.S. literature. It focuses on how literary works by Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, William S. Burroughs, and Thomas Pynchon draw on the utopian energies of American exceptionalism only to overturn exceptionalism’s investments in capitalism and the nation-state. The book analyzes what it terms the excluded middle between American exceptionalism and its critique, or the conceptual and libidinal space in which critique and complicity mutually determine one another. The book also offers a theory of the relationship between biopolitics and utopia, arguing that in the context of American literature, bodies become figures for alternative forms of social life. It pays particular attention to how these figures contribute to a literary commons, or the imagination of non-capitalist forms of cooperation and non-sovereign forms of democratic self-governance. In doing so, it articulates a model of literary history linking nineteenth-century literature to contemporary literature by way of the rise and decline of American hegemony. The book draws on and contributes to the fields of American Studies, American literary history, Marxist criticism, queer theory, political theory, continental philosophy, and utopian studies.

scholarly journals Social Relations, Science, Education, Lifestyle and Social Life in the Historical and Philosophical Heritage of the Khorezm Mamun Academy

CONVERTER ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 939-954
Author(s):  
Masharipova Gularam Kamilovna
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Social Life ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
History Of

In the historical and philosophical heritage of the scientists of the Khorezm Academy of Mamun, issues of social relations, science, education, lifestyle and social life are scientifically analyzed. It consists in identifying the influence of the natural science heritage of the scientists of the Khorezm Academy of Mamun on the development of socio-philosophical thinking, substantiating its significance in the history of philosophy, its place in the development of modern philosophy and its role in the development of philosophy. creation of new knowledge.

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