Join us at this week's meeting of the Philosophy Club in Auerbach 320 or online this Wednesday, Nov. 19 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. UHart student Stephen Mills presents Apollo and Dionysus: Art as Illumination—Life as a Work of Art, a development of the topic of Apollonian vs Dionysian patronage of the arts, and by extension, human life and happiness. A subject matter originally broached in modern times by Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosopher, and later extended by others, Apollo’s patronage was taken as representative of art as form, while Dionysus represented art as content.
OVERVIEW:
In particular, Nietzsche defined the significance of human life in his 1872 work of dramatic theory, The Birth of Tragedy. For him, our highest dignity and the purpose of human life lies in our significance as works of art. In this essay, Stephen argues for his own conception of what it means to make our lives a work of art, drawing from the New England Transcendentalist writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and the ancient Greek philosophers Epicurus and Plato to shape his perspective on life and aesthetic experience. He argues that reason, personified by Apollo, the Greek god of light, reason, music, and poetry, should take the lead in human decision-making and master the base aspects of human nature and chaotic elements of the world personified by Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, pleasure, and divine madness. Each god is a personification of psychological forces that have a real impact on our lives, and by acting from a place of Apollonian reason—by learning and gaining a more detailed, comprehensive understanding of ourselves and the world around us—we can grow into our more authentic selves. This authenticity is what it means to make our life a work of art. See full document here.
Stephen Mills is an undergraduate at the Hartford Art School pursuing a BA in Art History. He maintains an interest in a wide variety of humanities subjects; in particular, the history of art and architecture, the history of America’s Gilded Age, the history of technology, and philosophy. He has won awards for his landscape paintings in the Plein Air Salon and has exhibited his work at Kalmia Gardens in Durham, Connecticut.
Questions? Contact Brian Skelly at bskelly@hartford.edu or 413.273.2273.
An ongoing weekly tradition at the University since 2001, the University of Hartford Philosophy Club is a place where students, professors, and people from the community at large meet as peers. Sometimes presentations are given, followed by discussion. Other times, topics are hashed out by the whole group.
Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses.
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