The internet (and AI) have made us acutely aware of the power of images, and how it can come to seem reasonable to want to destroy these images as a defense mechanism. The idea of the seminar would be to take up not just explicit bans on images or various forms of censorship, but the philosophical underpinnings of iconoclasm: namely, the view that images are not bearers of truth, are antithetical to human efforts at making the world intelligible, and psychologically deleterious. We hope to invite people with art historical perspectives, alongside philosophers of art with things to say about the fate of iconoclasm beyond its ancient pedigree (Plato, the Bible) into the contemporary world.

Program