picturing life. Wittgenstein's visual ethics

Tagung des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs "Lebensformen und Lebenswissen"
Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder und Universität Potsdam
29.-31.5.2013

Veranstaltungsort:
Universität Potsdam
Am Neuen Palais 10
Haus 8, Raum 0.60

Wittgenstein's critique of philosophy employed the notion of images -
for example, that a picture can hold us captive. Yet his various remarks
on ethics and religion seem to suggest that we live in, and base
decisions on, images: Outside of philosophy this is not necessarily
erroneous, but simply part of our human form of life. Moreover, from his
earliest writings Wittgenstein continually puts forward the idea that
ethics cannot be captured propositionally, but that it is found in ways
of seeing the world. This conference will examine the role of imagery,
symbolism and iconic practices in Wittgenstein´s ethical thought.

It poses the following questions:
- How do our images of life and our forms of seeing-as reflect and
influence our form of life?
- How do pictures guide and justify our conduct?
- How do pictures "make sense", and how can imagistic meaning generate
knowledge of life?
- How do changes occur in our way of seeing and where is agency located
in this process?
- In a visual ethics, would the fact of multi-perspectivity lead to
relativism -- are there standards for assessing perspectives, and how
can we negotiate our ways of seeing?


Wednesday

18.00-18.15
Opening Remarks, Logi Gunnarsson

18.15-19.45
Hans Julius Schneider (Potsdam), Scenes, pictures, words: Wittgenstein
and a 'visual ethics'

19.45 Reception


Thursday

10.00-11.30
Piergiorgio Donatelli (Rome), Pictures, concepts, and moral thought

11.30-13.00
Fabian Geier (Durham/Bamberg), Still failing to speak about ethics: What
does it mean to "see the world" in a certain way?

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.30
Danièle Moyal-Sharrock (Hertfordshire), Wittgenstein and Leavis:
Literature and the enactment of the ethical

15.30-17.00
Ulrich Richtmeyer (Berlin), Wittgenstein about picture-practice
relations

17.00-17.30 Break

17.30-19.00
Gunter Gebauer (Berlin), Aspect-seeing. On the creativity of human
language

19.30 Dinner in Potsdam


Friday

9.00-10.30
Karsten Schoellner (Potsdam), Mystical visions, nonsense, and
Wittgensteinian antirealism

10.30-12.00
Mariele Nientied (Frankfurt/Oder), Metaethical implications of
Wittgenstein's "Bild"

12.00-13.00 Lunch

13.00-14.30
Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen (Odense), The picture is there.
Pictures, circumstances, ethics

14.30-16.00
Alice Crary (New York), An image of images in ethics

16.00-16.30 Break

16.30-18.00
Lars Hertzberg (Turku), Bringing home and making see

19.00 Dinner in Potsdam


Organization:
Emanuel John, Inga Schaub, Karsten Schoellner, Olivia
Mitscherlich-Schönherr, Ronja Tripp