Lecture
Thursday, Jun 14, 2018, 12:00 PM

Gesine Schwan

Berlin

Disinterested Beauty: a Criterion for Truth?

In his Critique of Judgement, Immanuel Kant claims a general validity for the judgment of taste. My short presentation will deal with the following questions: What understanding of truth is meant by that empirical and normative general validity? and: How generally valid or “true” can the judgment of taste be in a culturally diverse context? Or, the other way round: does the judgment of taste express a transcultural truth? Can it be a basis for mutual intercultural understanding? What is needed for such an understanding?

Gesine Schwan studied Romance languages, history, philosophy and political science in Berlin and Freiburg/Breisgau. In 1971 she was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Free University Berlin and in 1977 named Professor of Political Science, with particular reference to Political Theory and Philosophy, at the Free University of Berlin. Her main fields of research are political philosophy and theories of democracy, and recently also problems of political psychology and political culture. From October 1999 to October 2008 she was president of the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). She was a co-founder and, from 2010 until 2014, president of the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance. In 2004 and in 2008, she was nominated by SPD and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen as a candidate for the office of Germany’s Federal President. Her numerous publications include Die Gesellschaftskritik von Karl Marx. Philosophische und politökonomische Voraussetzungen (1974); Sozialismus in der Demokratie? Theorie einer konsequent sozialdemokratischen Politik (1982); Politik und Schuld. Die zerstörerische Macht des Schweigens (1997); Vertrauen und Politik. Politische Theorie im Zeitalter der Globalisierung (2006); Allein ist nicht genug. Für eine neue Kultur der Gemeinsamkeit (together with Susanne Gaschke, 2007) and Ich bin ein leidenschaftlicher Mensch. Vom Mut, Grenzen zu überschreiten (2015).

The event will be held in English