Mimesis: Philosophy of Meaning and Making Sense

About

Mimesis is a central concept in western culture. Stemming from the world of arts, this originally ancient Greek concept means, among other things, imitation and following, but also translating, reproducing, depicting, reciting, representing, impersonating, counterfeiting, performing. This course focuses on mimesis as a meaning constructing relationship. Meaning is taken here as a connective relationship between something meaning-demanding and something meaning-giving.

Humans are creatures of meaning. We constantly give and receive meaning; we live in meanings. Seeing this thing as a computer screen, feeling my dryness as thirst, enjoying a meal, falling in love with someone, using a lie as an argument, condemning this case as theft, forgiving someone a wrongdoing, considering that political party as a threat – just a few random examples of meaning relations. These examples alone show that meaning arises (is found or made) through interpreting-as, through judgments. These can be descriptive judgments (or facts): in front of me is a glass of water; that football player is offside – or normative judgments: that act is despicable; this music is beautiful; my situation is unpleasant; here is someone in need. Both descriptive and normative judgments can be more or less debatable: was it offside or not; is what I did transgressive; when is war justified?

In every interpretation or judgment, something meaning-demanding is connected to a meaning-giving. Meaning-demanding is usually something particular, for example an object, an action, a practice, a situation, an event, a phenomenon, a feeling, an opinion, a work of art. That particular matter is connected to a meaning-giving: something more general, for example a concept, a rule, a law, a norm, a value, an ideal, a tradition. Meaning-demanding and meaning-giving are not separate entities in themselves: meaning is constructed as the connection between them.

In this course, meaning relationships are investigated in six themes: exemplars, empathy, resilience, forgiveness, humanism, and philosophy.

Course leader

Prof. dr. Joachim Duyndam

Fee info