Phenomenology and Aesthetics. The 3rd Conference on Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in Central and Eastern Europe

Despite its focus on logic, theory of knowledge and ontology, phenomenology has always been closely associated with aesthetics and the arts. It should be noted however that in phenomenology aesthetics has never been understood just as the traditional theory of beauty and arts. Already from its beginnings, phenomenological aesthetics incorporates also the field of sensuous experience, namely, the sphere of aisthēsis, engaging not only with the experience of arts, but also with hyletic data, corporeality, affectivity, perception, visibility and so on. Although Husserl’s phenomenology is not usually associated with its focus on aesthetics, in his works he addresses questions of sensuous data, perception, imagination, phantasy and image-consciousness. The aesthetic topics are present in the early phenomenology, most notably, but not exclusively, in the works of members of the Munich and Göttingen circles, and are continually elaborated throughout the development of the phenomenological movement up to the contemporary phenomenology (by Moritz Geiger, Theodor Conrad, Johannes Daubert, Gustav Shpet, Nicolai Hartmann, Roman Ingarden, Fritz Kaufmann, France Veber, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Mikel Dufrenne, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Henry, Henry Maldiney, Marc Richir and Jean-Luc Marion among others).

The aim of the conference is both to explore historical perspectives on the aesthetic found in the phenomenological tradition in Central and Eastern Europe (in the works of well-known and lesser known phenomenologists) and to develop and evaluate new perspectives. The conference aspires to bring together various topics and authors, important for phenomenological aesthetics and, at the same time illuminating the scope and limits of the phenomenological movement in Central and Eastern Europe, both in the light of its legacy and its future.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Phenomenology and poetic language
Phenomenology and the work of art
Phenomenology and painting, music, theatre, dance, cinema, photography, architecture, etc.
Hyletic phenomenology, passivity and affectivity
Phenomenology of pain and suffering
Phenomenology of the body, incarnation, and the flesh
Image-consciousness, phantasy and imagination
Intuition, visibility and invisibility
Aesthetic experience and the aesthetic object
Phenomenology of aesthetics and aesthetics of phenomenology
Transcendental aesthetics and phenomenology

Please submit your proposals by the DEADLINE of MARCH 15, 2017.

We welcome proposals in English.
Proposals should be prepared for blind review and should not exceed 500 words. Proposals should consist of abstract (containing title and abstract) and cover letter (containing title, name, affiliation, and contact information).
Abstracts should be sent to: [email protected]
Registration is FREE of charge.
Time limit for speakers: 30 minutes for presentation + 10 minutes for discussion.