October 24-25, 2014, Franciscan University
Keynote Address: “Beauty and Desecration” Roger Scruton
“Beauty will save the world,” writes Dostoevsky, yet beauty is often seen as a weak and expendable arrow in the metaphysical quiver that includes the more robust good and true. Many think of beauty as a mere decoration of human life, a luxury rather than a spiritual necessity. Indeed, there is much kitsch that masquerades as art; it is not surprising if such “beauty” is not taken seriously. Authentic beauty can have the transformative, even salvific, effects that Dostoevesky sees.
The organisers invite:
-Papers that do justice to the particular power of beauty to renew both individual persons and also entire communities. That explore beauty not only metaphysically but also concretely and phenomenologically.
-Participants to go beyond a formal defence of the existence of beauty, to glimpse not just the most general traits of beauty, but to capture its power to impart new life, its deep affinity with love, its power to awaken deep aspirations in the human heart.
-We also welcome papers that explore the reasons for the hostility to beauty that some have expressed.
-We look forward to papers that make heard again the voices of Western philosophy on beauty, voices from Plato to St. Thomas Aquinas to Hegel, including contemporary voices such as Maritain, Ingarden, and von Hildebrand.
-Artists offering philosophical reflection on art are also welcome to submit.
Paper title and 400-word abstract due by 1 September, 2014. Submission information: franciscan.edu/thepowerofbeauty
Graduate Student Essay Contest: hildebrandlegacy.org/powerofbeauty Three winners will receive all-expenses-paid trips to present their papers.