Santa Fe, New Mexico

2009 CONFERENCE PROGRAM ROCKY MOUNTAIN DIVISION OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR AESTHETICS SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO JULY 10-12, 2009    FRIDAY, 10 July 2009   8:00:  Registration  (De Vargas Room)   8:45:  Opening Remarks  (De Vargas Room)   9:00-10:40:  First & Second Sessions, Concurrent.   First Session (De Vargas Room):  Art, Artists, and Aesthetic Context. Chair:  Michael Manson, Independent Scholar, Brandon, Manitoba   Peter Thompson, Managing Director, Two Rivers Gallery “Image & Imagination:  How We See Cezanne’s Mountain” Michael Greene, Philosophy / Religious Studies, Bradley University “Van Gogh’s Hermeneutic Circle:  An Essay on Van Gogh’s Early Callistics and Philosophy of Art” Karen Hillier, Practicing Artist, Texas and New Mexico “Wearable Landscapes:  Re-contextualizing Landscape of the Southwest”   Second Session (Boardroom):   Marxism and the Market. Chair:  Eva Dadlez, Humanities / Philosophy, University of Central Oklahoma   Norman Fischer, Philosophy, Kent State University “Frankfurt School Marxism and the Ethical Meaning of Art” Raphael Sassower, Philosophy, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs “How To Sell Art”   10:40-11:00:  Coffee Break  (served in the Lobby)   11:00-12:40:  Third & Fourth Sessions, Concurrent.   Third Session (De Vargas Room):  Aesthetic Interplay Between Western and Non-Western Forms. Chair:  Reuben Ellis, English, Prescott College   Allison Hagerman, Philosophy, University of New Mexico “Sublime New World” Ryan Jordan, Philosophy, Ohio State University “What Non-Western Music Can Tell Us About Musical Expression” Cornelia Tsakiridou, Philosophy, La Salle University “Noble Fantasies:  The Appropriation of the Orthodox Icon by the Russian Avant-Garde”   Fourth Session (Boardroom):  Representation and the Problem of Make-Believe. Chair:  Martin Donougho, Philosophy / Comp Lit, University of South Carolina   Mark Silcox, Humanities / Philosophy, University of Central Oklahoma “Two Theories of Make-Believe” Heidi Silcox, Humanities / Philosophy, University of Central Oklahoma “What’s Wrong with Alienation?” Eva Dadlez, Humanities / Philosophy, University of Central Oklahoma “Revisiting the Problem of Fiction and Emotion”   1:00-2:20:  Lunch on your own.   2:30-4:00:  Fifth Session, Plenary (De Vargas Room). Chair:  Frances Downing, Architecture, Texas A&M University   Manuel Davenport Keynote Address   Donald Kuspit, Distinguished Professor of Art History and Philosophy, SUNY Stony Brook   “Aesthetic Transcendence”   * * * Dinner on your own.     SATURDAY, 11 July 2009   9:00-10:40:  Sixth & Seventh Sessions, Concurrent.   Sixth Session (De Vargas Room): Roundtable on the State of Contemporary Letters:  Is Hybridity the Word?   Dee Horne, English, University of Northern British Columbia “A Scent of the Interior:  An Excerpt from ‘Central Interiors’” George Moore, English, University of Colorado-Boulder “CyBorg Poetics: How to Build a Poetry After the Death of Poetry” (reading selected new poems) Linda Dove, Independent Scholar, Altadena, California “Poetics Without One Language: How This Sentence Has Lost All of Its Meaning(s)”  (reading poems from In Defense of Objects)   Seventh Session (Boardroom):  The Aesthetics of Self-Fashioning. Chair:  S.K. Wertz, Philosophy, Texas Christian University   Alain Beauclair, Philosophy, Central Washington University “Dewey’s Reconstruction of Tragedy:  Self-Making as a Tragic Endeavor” Lawrence Rhu, English / Comp Literature, University of South Carolina “On Cavell On Shakespeare:  Losing Mamillius, Finding Perdita”   10:40-11:00:  Coffee Break (served in the Lobby)   11:00-1:00:  Eighth & Ninth Sessions, Concurrent.   Eighth Session (De Vargas Room):  Aesthetics and Literature. Chair:  Dee Horne, English, University of Northern British Columbia   Michael Manson, Independent Scholar, Brandon, Manitoba “Mis-placed Men:  Aging and Change in Coetzee’s Disgrace and      McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men” Reuben Ellis, English, Prescott College “Our Lives Are Inauthentic:  J.B. Priestly’s Southwest and the Coming Emergencies” John Samson, English, Texas Tech University “Nietzsche, the Dance, and Cather’s My Antonia” Joseph Vincenzo, Philosophy, Walsh University “Aesthetic Joy in Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathrustra”   Ninth Session (Boardroom):  Beauty and Taste:  Practical and Theoretical Treatments. Chair:  Arthur Stewart, Philosophy / Music, Lamar University   Rick Chew, Humanities / Philosophy, University of Central Oklahoma “Rudolph Arnheim and Howard Gardner:  Aesthetic Education in the Elementary School” S.K. Wertz, Philosophy (Emeritus), Texas Christian University “The Elements of Taste:  How Many Are There?” James Mock, Humanities / Philosophy, University of Central Oklahoma “The Gordian Knot of Influences:  Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty, Gerard’s Essay on Taste, and Hume’s Better Way in ‘Of the Standard of Taste’” Jon Mikkelsen, Philosophy / Humanities, Missouri Western State University “Dickie, Stecker, and Kant on ‘Aesthetics’ and ‘Philosophy of Art’”   1:00-2:20:  Lunch on your own.   2:30-4:00:  Tenth Session, Plenary (De Vargas Room). Chair:  George Moore, English, University of Colorado-Boulder   The Artist at Work   Jacquelyn McBain, Pasadena, CA represented by Littlejohn Contemporary, Inc., NYC   “Experiments Useful for the Cure of Men’s Minds”     6:00-8:00:  Conference Reception (Hotel Lobby)   * * * Dinner on your own.   SUNDAY, 12 July 2009   9:30-11:10:  Eleventh & Twelth Sessions, Concurrent.   Eleventh Session (De Vargas Room):  Aesthetics and Architecture. Chair:  James Mock, Humanities / Phil, University of Central Oklahoma   Frances Downing, Architecture, Texas A&M University “An Architecture of the Edge” Craig Anz and Jon Davey, Architectural Studies, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale “Agapastic Generation:  Creative Love and Connective Communities of Knowing” Roger Paden, Philosophy, George Mason University “Otto Wagner’s Modern Architecture:  A Speculative Interpretation of the Postsparkasse”   Twelth Session (Boardroom):  Aesthetics and Music. Chair:  John Samson, English, Texas Tech University   David Conter, Philosophy, Huron University College “Allusion, Literary Echoes, and Gluck’s Alceste:  Will Santa Fe Opera-Goers Get It?” Martin Donougho, Philosophy / Comp Lit, University of South Carolina “The Elixir of Philosophy:  Donizetti’s Vocal Transcendence” Arthur Stewart, Philosophy / Music, Lamar University “(A)esthetic Insights in Religious Dimensions of Peirce’s Thought” (chamber / piano illustrations provided)   11:30-12:30:  Business Meeting (De Vargas Room) Adjournment * * *       American Society for Aesthetics, Rocky Mountain Division     Officers   President:  Linda Dove   Vice President:  James Mock   Secretary / Treasurer:  John Samson   * * *   Sustaining Institution: Center for Philosophical Studies, Lamar University     2010 CONFERENCE PROGRAM ROCKY MOUNTAIN DIVISION OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR AESTHETICS SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO JULY 9-11, 2010   FRIDAY, 9 July 2010   8:00:  Registration  (De Vargas Room) 8:45:  Opening Remarks  (De Vargas Room)   9:00-10:30:  First & Second Sessions, Concurrent.   First Session (De Vargas Room):  Defininitions and Cosmologies.   Chair:  Linda Dove, Independent Scholar (English)   ·        S.K. Wertz, Philosophy (Emeritus), Texas Christian University “Tao Chi’s Theory of Painting: Chinese Cosmic Landscapes” · Erman Kaplama, Humanities and Cultural Studies, University of London “Cosmological Aesthetics through The Kantian Sublime and Nietzschean Dionysian”     Second Session (Boardroom):   Literary Aesthetics.   Chair:  Michael Manson, Independent Scholar (English).   ·        Frances Downing, Architecture, Texas A&M University “The Edge of a Novel” ·        John Samson, English, Texas Tech University “The Bearable Lightness of Being: Nabokov’s Ada, or Ardor” ·        George Moore, English, University of Colorado-Boulder “Rage for Order: Fascist Politics and Modernist Aesthetics”   10:30-11:00:  Coffee Break  (served in the Lobby)   11:00-12:30:  Third Session, Plenary.   Third Session (De Vargas Room):  The Representation of Environment / Native Cultures.   Chair:  Cornelia Tsakiridou, Philosophy, La Salle University   ·         Allison Hagerman, Philosophy, University of New Mexico “An Uncanny Nature: Taking a Side Road to Aesthetic Appreciation of Environment” ·        Roger Paden, Philosophy, George Mason University “A New Aesthetics of Nature and the Absence of the Sublime” ·         David Conter, Philosophy, Huron University College “Cowboy Art, Indian Art, Romanticism, Nostalgia, Truth” ·    ·    ·    12:30-2:00:  Lunch on your own.   2:15-3:45:  Fourth Session, Plenary (De Vargas Room).   Chair:  Allison Hagerman, Philosophy, University of New Mexico   *Manuel Davenport Keynote Address*   Dr. Mary Domski Department of Philosophy, University of New Mexico   “Unity as Natural, Reason as Divine: The Beauty of Systems in Seventeenth-Century Natural Philosophy” * * * Dinner on your own.   SATURDAY, 10 July 2010   9:00-10:30:  Fifth & Sixth Sessions, Concurrent.   Fifth Session (De Vargas Room): Time Passages.   Chair:  Elizabeth Graham, Sociology, Brandon University   ·        Michael Manson, Independent Scholar (English), and Scott Stewart, Philosophy, Cape Breton University “Stranger in a New World: J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace” ·        Patrick McKee, Philosophy, Colorado State University “Old Age Style and the Sublime Landscape” ·     Sixth Session (Boardroom):  Aesthetics and Ethics.   Chair:  S.K. Wertz, Philosophy (Emeritus), Texas Christian University   ·        Lawrence Rhu, English / Comp Lit, University of South Carolina “Emersonian Affinities: Reading Richard Ford through Stanley Cavell” ·        Norman Fischer, Philosophy, Kent State University “Georg Lukacs’s Hegelian Marxism and Scott’s Novels of Knighthood and Pre-Modern Clans”   10:30-11:00:  Coffee Break (served in the Lobby)   11:00-12:30:  Seventh Session, Plenary.   Seventh Session (De Vargas Room):  On Music, Nature, and Art.   Chair:  John Samson, English, Texas Tech University   ·        Rudolf Brun, Biology (Emeritus), Texas Christian University “Simplexity in Music and Nature" Karen Hillier, Practicing Artist, Texas and New Mexico “I Remember” ·       12:30-2:00:  Lunch on your own.   2:15-3:45:  Eighth Session, Plenary (De Vargas Room).   Chair:  Linda Dove, Independent Scholar (English)   The Artist at Work   Elizabeth Dove Department of Art, University of Montana   “Imperfection’s Gift: Embroidered Hair, Text Dust and Navels”     6:00-8:00:  Conference Reception (Hotel Lobby)   * * * Dinner on your own.   SUNDAY, 11 July 2010   9:30-11:10:  Ninth Session, Plenary.   Ninth Session (De Vargas Room):  Aesthetics and The Visual.   Chair:  George Moore, English, University of Colorado-Boulder   ·        Raphael Sassower, Philosophy, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs “Visual Literacy as Activism” ·        Cornelia Tsakiridou, Philosophy, La Salle University “Enargeia: The Living Image in Icons and in Some Photographs by Sebastiao Salgado” ·        Flo Leibowitz, Philosophy, Oregon State University “The Hubble Photographs as Aesthetic Objects”   11:30-12:30:  Business Meeting (De Vargas Room) Adjournment   * * * American Society for Aesthetics, Rocky Mountain Division   Officers   President:  Linda Dove Vice President:  James Mock Secretary / Treasurer:  Elizabeth Graham   * * * Sustaining Institution: Center for Philosophical Studies, Lamar University ABSTRACTS OF PANELS FROM THE 2010 CONFERENCE PROGRAM   FRIDAY, 9 July 2010 9:00-10:30:  First & Second Sessions, Concurrent. First Session (De Vargas Room):  Defininitions and Cosmologies.   S.K. Wertz, Philosophy (Emeritus), Texas Christian University "Tao Chi's Theory of Painting: Chinese Cosmic Landscapes" In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries (C.E.), Tao Chi wrote comments in the corners of his paintings (mostly Chinese landscapes painted from memory). These comments have been collected under the title Quotes on Painting. They discuss the painting process of his artworks and others. The basic tenets of his theory are in sharp contrast with Plato's, so to provide a significant setting for Tao Chi, I develop parallel points in Plato's theory along side Tao Chi's. For example, Tao Chi thinks that painting can depict the forms of the universe whereas Plato believes that painting is the furthest removed from the forms (it reflects at best an illusory appearance of things). Transparencies of Tao Chi's paintings will be shown to illustrate his theory.   Erman Kaplama, Humanities and Cultural Studies, University of London "Cosmological Aesthetics through The Kantian Sublime and Nietzschean Dionysian" This paper concerning the transition between the natural forces and aesthetic concepts will try to examine how we take nature in and apply it to the concepts of understanding with regards to the Sublime and Dionysian. In doing so, the Kantian sublime shall be defined both cosmologically and aesthetically, both as the aesthetic representation of Nature as a whole, and as an idea generated within the faculty of the power of Judgment, which "schematises the transition from the sensible to supersensible". It is going to be proved that not only is the Dionysian an aesthetic theory that links Nature (phusis) to Human Nature (ethos) as represented in the Chorus in Greek Tragedy (playing an intermediary role between the gods and humans), but also is the symbolic representation of the universal-cosmic forces that require Apollonian form and sense giving force for its actualization.   Second Session (Boardroom):   Literary Aesthetics.   Frances Downing, Architecture, Texas A&M University "The Edge of a Novel" I would like to address the differences between purely academic writing and contrast it to the form of the Novel.  The process is different, the structure is quite different, and the pauses one takes to regroup are dissimilar; the flow of a novel to me seems to be hermeneutic where one "loops" back as the story and characters are revealed so that progression is not purely linear.  The narrative is like a non-linear equation; in architecture the "golden section" can only suggest a beginning and an end, in reality we simply cannot draw it into infinity, and to me this seems to be true of any story, we simply choose to begin and end somewhere along a continuous, hermeneutic journey.   John Samson, English, Texas Tech University "The Bearable Lightness of Being: Nabokov's Ada, or Ardor" I will focus on images of light and transparency in Nabokov's masterwork, concentrating particularly on the character Lucette. Through her, I will argue Nabokov deconstructs his narrator's (Van Veen's) text and reveals a central aspect of his aesthetic.   George Moore, English, University of Colorado-Boulder "Rage for Order: Fascist Politics and Modernist Aesthetics" This paper will explore aspects of authoritarianism in the form of aesthetic and political ideas of order represented by a number of modernist writers. The idea of order here links the social and political views to a variety of aesthetic experiments. In particular, Gertrude Stein's use of Otto Weininger's Sex and Character proves both anti-Semitic and homophobic. It is a work that Stein not only greatly admired but found instrumental in her own development of fictional characterizations. Similarly, D. H. Lawrence's late attraction to authoritarian regimes that would support his own problematic definitions of gender, and in particular of sexual difference and phallic power, augmented by the idea of racial "blood consciousness" as found in works like The Plumed Serpent.  Lawrence, if not directly connected with fascist ideas, supported theories of natural human order that mirror authoritarian principles shared by many.  Although Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot were certainly prime movers for the modernist connection to fascist ideologies, Eliot's most difficult work, the later suppressed After Strange Gods, can best be read as a parallel experiment in cultural order through aesthetic form. The conclusion of this research suggests not a direct parallel between aesthetic form and political authoritarianism, but rather the modernist struggle with various ideas of order that reflect both the changing attitudes toward form in art and literature and the political uncertainties of the early decades of the twentieth century.     11:00-12:50:  Third & Fourth Sessions, Concurrent.   Third Session (De Vargas Room):  The Representation of Environment / Native Cultures.   Allison Hagerman, Philosophy, University of New Mexico "An Uncanny Nature: Taking a Side Road to Aesthetic Appreciation of Environment" This presentation will summarize some of the main points of my dissertation, in which I examine the potential of the experience of the uncanny to facilitate a virtuous appreciation of both natural and built environments. This is somewhat of an uphill battle due to the fact that the uncanny is traditionally viewed as "morally deflationary" in the West. In addition to giving some background on the history of the uncanny, I will discuss both Freud and Heidegger's treatment of it, as well as the possibility that the uncanny may have a parallel in omoshiroi of Japanese aesthetics. If, indeed, omoshiroi can be understood as an experience similar to the uncanny, then perhaps some of the virtues that arise from the cultivation of its appreciation can be coaxed and developed through an appreciation of the uncanny. I would like to include in this presentation examples (powerpoint slides) of what I take to be manifestations of the uncanny in the built environment from both ancient and contemporary cultures. The basic impetus of this presentation is to open up discussion as to whether or not the uncanny can be experienced as something that meaningfully reconnects us to our situatedness in our environment rather than alienates us from it.   Roger Paden, Philosophy, George Mason University "A New Aesthetics of Nature and the Absence of the Sublime" In this talk, I will focus mainly on the claim that, historically, the picturesque has played a central role in grounding aesthetic judgments of nature. To make my case for this claim, I will focus on the writings of the American Transcendentalist (read with an eye on the work of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer) and on the efforts to create the U.S. National Park system. In particular, I will examine the passage from Muir's "A Near View of the High Sierra." This passage is often used to provide historical support for their attack on the picturesque. I will argue that, in fact, it illustrates the historical importance of the sublime. Following this discussion, I will briefly describe some of Carlson's philosophical arguments against the picturesque and argue that these arguments cannot be used against the sublime.   David Conter, Philosophy, Huron University College "Cowboy Art, Indian Art, Romanticism, Nostalgia, Truth" The paper examines four paintings (which are to be shown to the audience.) Two were painted by Charles M. Russell (1865-1926): In the Wake of the Buffalo Runners (1911) and Her Heart is on the Ground (1917).  In each painting, the central figure is an Indian woman who has evidently been separated from the man to whom she is devoted. The other two paintings are by Mateo Romero (1966-    ):  Bonnie and Clyde Series #1 and #4. Romero describes the people represented in these paintings as "hip, urban Indian lovers, hanging out in the back of a convertible, drinking and chain-smoking." A question arises whether these paintings are 'truer' than Russell's. The paper proceeds obliquely, considering a number of explanations for the content of the paintings. The first relates their content to what might be called American imperialism in the westward expansion. Romanticism is briefly discussed in connection with all four paintings with respect to the treatment of outsiders as heroic and sublime. It is rejected as an explanation because it is too broad. Finally, Bernard Williams's treatment of nostalgia in the context of politics is invoked. The suggestion is made that all four paintings point more or less directly to the idea of a better but irretrievable past. The paper ends with a question: is painterly or photographic realism the only way to stick to the truth?   SATURDAY, 10 July 2010   9:00-10:30:  Fifth & Sixth Sessions, Concurrent.   Fifth Session (De Vargas Room): Time Passages.   Michael Manson, Independent Scholar (English), and Scott Stewart, Philosophy, Cape Breton University "Stranger in a New World: J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace" Being old is revered in many cultures and is regarded as an indicator of experience and reflection that leads to wisdom not available to youth. In many post-modern cultures, however, this tradition is often displaced, and age is seen, rather, as an impediment. J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace depicts one view of the difficulty an aging man faces in light of social changes that cover the spectrum from politics and power to language and sex. The changing world which David Lurie, Coetzee's protagonist, is forced to confront challenges him in ways that he neither expects nor that he is able adapt to except, perhaps, in the slightest and least significant of ways. David is, therefore, stymied by his approaching old age, by his failures and his subsequent retreat from that new world. This paper discusses his failure, it's roots and consequences, and, thus, Coetzee's view of what a society such as the novel's new South Africa holds in store for those who, like David, are all but entirely dislocated in the society in which they, themselves, had been central and in control.   Patrick McKee, Philosophy, Colorado State University "Old Age Style and the Sublime Landscape" I propose a presentation linking old age style in painting and the sublime landscape.       In recent publications I have defended a conjecture, following a remark in Kant, (see CPJ, 5:276) that the "old age style" known to art historians and to gerontologists may be seen as an expression of the artist's increasing aesthetic interest in the sublime. Such an age-developmental shift in aesthetic interest is predictable on the basis of Lars Tornstam's gerotranscendence theory in recent gerontology, and on the basis of Kant's remarks on human development in his ethical and anthropological writings. I shall briefly explicate the ideas of old age style, the sublime in landscapes, and gerotranscendence. The presentation I propose aims to partially integrate these ideas.   Sixth Session (Boardroom):  Aesthetics and Ethics.   Lawrence Rhu, English / Comp Lit, University of South Carolina "Emersonian Affinities: Reading Richard Ford through Stanley Cavell" Via Cavell's thinking this essay demonstrates the kinship among the American writers Emerson, Percy, Ford, and, of course, Cavell. These four share profound affinities, despite their clear divergences and their various degrees of isolation from one another. Even when these four writers are not directly engaging one another's work, they sustain parts in conversations that meaningfully include them all. The resources of both philosophy and literature, as Cavell has discovered and developed them, serve us well in exploring what Emerson would term the "spiritual affinities" among these four major American writers.   Norman Fischer, Philosophy, Kent State University "Georg Lukacs's Hegelian Marxism and Scott's Novels of Knighthood and Pre-Modern Clans" In 1936 and 1937, the German speaking Hungarian philosopher, Georg Lukács, contributed to a Hegelian aesthetics of imagination linked to a Hegelian and Marxist political ethics and philosophy of history, when he presented, in The Historical Novel, an imaginative aesthetics for understanding historical novels, with emphasis on Walter Scott. In order to develop an abstract aesthetics of imagination that incorporates political and historical ethics, (one) the general Hegelianism of Lukács' enterprise must be logically separated from (two) the contemporary political framework in which he wrote, which is leftist and Marxist. This is particularly important for understanding Scott's premodern novels, where only a strong Hegelian emphasis can unlock their peculiar mix of radicalism and conservatism.  Loquacious linked Hegelianism and popular front Marxism so closely in The Historical Novel that they often appear as logically inseparable, but at a deeper philosophical level they are logically separable, and must be seen as such in order to bring out the deepest elements in Scott's political-historical imagination, particularly in his novels of premodern clans, knighthood, chivalry and crusades.     11:00-12:30:  Seventh Session, Plenary.   Seventh Session (De Vargas Room):  On Music, Nature, and Art.   Rudolf Brun, Biology (Emeritus), Texas Christian University "Simplexity in Music and Nature" There are two understandings of simplicity. Simplicity can be poor or rich. Consider music, a note is simple, a B-flat or a C-sharp. A composer, however, can use such simplicity to bring forth a melody, which is obviously more complex. Yet, picking random notes will not do. Rather, different notes must form a new unit, a melody. A melody may serve as an element of an even more complex unity, the movement of a symphony that may be part of a still more complex unity, the unity of a symphony for example. Alternatively, deconstructing a symphony reveals that it consists of simpler parts, its movements, that in turn are themselves complex unities of still simpler melodies which are unities of notes that emerge from integrated sound waves and textures. Music emerges from the integration of simple units that are, however, already complex. The architecture of music is simple and complex- it is simplex.   Karen Hillier, Practicing Artist, Texas and New Mexico "I Remember" I am developing a body of work in a variety of mediums. Using drawing, photography, installation, video, sound, and through the construction of garments in ephemeral fabrics such as tulle, I have begun an examination of these ordinary household practices and particular linens. Questions are raised. Many center on gender imprinting. Ironically, the constructed garments are used as projection screens for video and still images. I will present examples of my work to date emphasizing drawings and still photographs and show original works in addition to projected images. I will speak primarily of process from my own experience and reference the work of artists with whom I have a working affinity such as Louise Bourgeois who is included in The Lining of Forgetting.   SUNDAY, 11 July 2010   9:00-11:00:  Ninth Session, Plenary.   Ninth Session (De Vargas Room):  Aesthetics and The Visual.   Raphael Sassower, Philosophy, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs "Visual Literacy as Activism" In this paper I argue first that visual language is more dominant today than the textual, and second, that because of the dominance of visual language, visual literacy ought to be studied and taught more rigorously. It is my contention that visual literacy can make us more critical in general and thus more politically astute in particular. In the case of war images, especially given our involvement in two theaters simultaneously, this could lead to an entirely different public discourse on the merits or demerits of our continued engagement in these theaters.   Cornelia Tsakiridou, Philosophy, La Salle University "Enargeia: The Living Image in Icons and in Some Photographs by Sebastiao Salgado" The paper discusses the concept of enargeia associated in Greek philosophy and art criticism since the time of Plato with the vivid presence of a being or image. Particularly relevant to the appreciation of the Byzantine icon in some of its exemplary instances, the concept has theological and aesthetic implications in that context. These extend to more contemporary art forms like photography as we will show in the case of the work of Sebastiao Salgado.   Flo Leibowitz, Philosophy, Oregon State University "The Hubble Photographs as Aesthetic Objects" In this presentation, I analyze several digital photographs released by the Hubble Heritage Team (their releases are popularly known as "the Hubble photographs"), comparing them with Moon and Half Dome and Clearing Winter Sky. Thus construed, the Hubble photographs are aesthetically substantial nature photographs. Thus construed, their look is in part a product of the intentions of the Hubble Heritage Team, whose published intentions are in part aesthetic. Thus construed, the Hubble photographs, while not "snapshots", are in many respects interpretable using familiar notions of photographic objectivity and transparency.