Philosophy Speaker Series

Every year, Laurier’s Department of Philosophy hosts a speaker series that explores different questions, theories and topics. Each session is hosted by a Laurier faculty member or guest speaker. All are welcome to attend.

Dr. Andreea Mihali

• Date: Friday, October 25, 2019
• Time: 3:30 p.m. 
• Location: P327 (Peters building)

Please join us for refreshments prior to the talk at 3:15.

 Looking at Descartes through the History of Art

This presentation is a multimodal argument in support of Descartes’ philosophical importance and continued presence on our reading lists, whether we are working with an extended canon or an “exploded anti-canon”. Taking my cue from the Baroque combination of media (text and images in emblems; verses, paintings, music, dance and stage-sets in opera), I will use nonverbal demonstrations (images of famous paintings as well as musical pieces) alongside verbally articulated philosophical reasons in an effort to bring to light similarities between important artistic tendencies of the 17th century and prominent Cartesian theses. I argue that this type of art-inspired approach has the potential to shed new light on old debates in Descartes scholarship and to uncover new insights into Descartes’ views.