300 years Kant: Are we enlightened?

Questions for Immanuel Kant today

When Immanuel Kant wrote his famous essay “What is Enlightenment?” in 1784, he himself did not yet believe that we were actually enlightened. Today, however, we are convinced of it.

What is our self-image based on and is it justified? The lecture/seminar will investigate these questions.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible) 

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

Who am I? Colonialism and Africa

Born in Germany as a black person or in South Africa as a white person. Who am I? Specifically, it is Philip Kojo Metz and Marlene Dumas who, as artists, deal with the question of their own identity against the backdrop of colonialism in their respective works.

Kant provides primary answers to the question "Who am I?". Today, it is postmodern philosophy, especially that of Roland Barthes and Judith Butler, that deals with this question in concrete terms.

The aim of the seminar is to take up these approaches and discuss them against the background of the question.

Seminar (other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible) 

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request 

Hilla von Rebay and Peggy Guggenheim

Two of the most influential art collectors in the world

Hilla von Rebay and Peggy Guggenheim were characterized by their keen sense of art. In particular, they promoted the recognition of modern art not only in old Europe, but also in the brave new world of America.

With Hilla von Rebay's recommendations for the purchase of works of art and the realization of one of the most important icons of museum construction in New York and Peggy Guggenheim's establishment of her own collection, they shaped the profile of the internationally prestigious Guggenheim Museums in New York, Bilbao and Venice.

The topic of the seminar is what makes up this profile.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester, etc. are possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

Russia and communism

of the first hour in images

The connection between goods and capital, as Marx outlined it from 1848, revolutionized the understanding of social interaction and social order not only in Russia. Through the discussion of the background and in the analysis of film, image, object, architecture and cult, this phenomenon will be examined together from a new angle in the seminar. 

Lit:

Karl Marx. Das Kapital, in: Marx, Karl/Engels, Friedrich: Werke. Vol. 23-25, Berlin 1972 (MEW 23-25).

Hartmut Böhme. Fetischismus und Kultur. Eine andere Theorie der Moderne. Hamburg: Rowohlt, 2006.

Martina Sauer. Review: Böhme, Hartmut. Fetischismus und Kultur. Hamburg: Rowohlt, 2006, in: Kunstchronik, Monatsschrift für Kunstwissenschaft, Museumswesen und Denkmalpflege, hg. v. Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in München, Mitteilungsblatt des Verbandes Deutscher Kunsthistoriker e.V., 07/2007: https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00000948.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible) 

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

Myths, Fake News and

alternative truths?  

Answers from philosophy 

What does it mean to speak of myths, fake news and alternative truths? What is hidden behind them? 

This requires a deeper consideration. For this it is necessary to work out the basics of what constitutes not only myths, but also fairy tales and legends. How are they related to our lives? Why do we have them at all?

Philosophy has dealt with these questions in many ways. Their arguments and reflections will be taken up and discussed and made fruitful for the current debates about fake news, cross-thinkers and statements about "that's a myth after all".

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible) 

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request 

Russia:

Post-Communism and Media

With the reorganization of communism in Russia from 1991 on, the so-called new media have taken on an increasingly important role. To consider this phenomenon - also in comparison to global developments - against the background of Marshall McLuhan's significant and influential media theory serves the seminar.

Lit.:

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: The New American Library, 1964

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester, etc. are possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

"Anything Goes"

Postmodern architecture and its background in the real world

Up until the 1980s, the New Objectivity style dominated architecture, which was characterised by the maxim "form follows function" and the new-orientation pioneered by the Bauhaus. But then a change sets in that becomes visible in all areas of society, the so-called postmodernism. In the winged play on words of "anything goes" - at first understood as a departure, but then also negatively evaluated - postmodernism has gone down in the history of style.

Architecture played a pioneering role in the development of postmodern tendencies. Thus, as early as the 1970s, initiated by the American architect and architectural theorist Charles Jencks, his popular book on "Language of Post-Modern Architecture", published in 1977, began to rethink the existing architectural style in the USA. However, the concept of postmodernism only became a familiar concept through the French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard and his 1979 publication "La condition postmoderne".

In an examination of the criticism of modernism as expressed in the writings, the phenomenon in architecture will be examined in the seminar and in joint discussion of it.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

What is Postmodernism?

Towards a new self-image of mankind since the 80s 

The term "postmodernism" became popular in the late 1970s through Jean-Francois Lyotard's book "La condition postmoderne" ("The postmodern knowledge"). With this, the French philosopher summarizes something that was already in the air before and that can be understood as a critique of modernity. Behind this lies the fact that old patterns or self-evident things are questioned and finally taken apart or "deconstructed".

These concern, among other things:

- Can we seriously consider ourselves enlightened people today?

- Do they apply to us and do we really orient ourselves according to humanistic ideals?

- Are we really free in our own development?

Looking back on these connections following Lyotard in his encounter with the "Myths of Everyday Life" (1957) by Roland Barthes and the thesis of Judith Butler in "Hass spricht. Zur Politik des Performativen" (1997) serves to deepen and discuss the seminar.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible) 

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

History of Science: "The Hamburg Circle"

Consequences of the Exclusion of Jewish Scholars in Science and Research in Germany

At the beginning of the 20th century, the self-image of the Geisteswissenschaften in Germany was revolutionized in a decisive way. The approach to speak henceforth of cultural studies revolutionized the self-image. However, a renaming at universities in Germany did not take place until the 1980s and 1990s. 

What led to the new approach? What was the trigger for the change? The unique collegial and interdisciplinary climate, free of religious questions and open to the world, in the milieu of the newly founded university in Hamburg in 1919 around Aby M. Warburg, Ernst Cassirer, Heinz Werner and others, provided the conditions for this. This came to an abrupt end when the National Socialists came to power in 1933.

In the seminar, the background and consequences of the of the new approach central to the humanities will be discussed.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

What's the point?

When the familiar and the traditional are called into question by art and design.

How is it to be understood when suddenly what is familiar to us, what is generally understood and handed down is called into question by abstract art, crazy fashion, unpractical design? What is the point? Since it is art in the broadest sense, can I then dismiss it as a matter of taste?

It is the philosopher Walter Benjamin who has dealt intensively with these questions. In this context, he speaks of a "loss of aura," (´Verlust der Aura´) and by this he means the loss of the familiar, the secure, and the traditional. I would like to discuss with you the fact that the break is not only negative, but on the contrary opens up new perspectives, using different examples from art, fashion and design.

Cf. also my block entries from November 13, 2023 at this homepage about "Chockwirkugnen"

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible) 

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

How do we live together? 

The promise of happiness, security and community

Around 399 BC, the famous ancient philosopher Socrates was sentenced to death. The lecture/seminar will use his fate to demonstrate the conflicting forces of the promise of happiness, security and community and at the same time make it useful for all of us to assess the situation today.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

"The new woman is here - she exists"

(Alexandra Kollontai 1918, Russian writer)

Women at the Bauhaus

The Bauhaus promised to revolutionize the image of women: She was to present herself to the world as self-confident, dynamic, and eager to experiment. The admission and high enrollment of 101 women (and 106 men) to study at the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1919 reflects this. But the image of the woman of the twenties conveyed by the media proved to be a myth.

The Bauhaus, its visions and achievements and the share of women in it are the focus of this seminar.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

Vintage - retro - "shabby chic".

Why?

In fashion, design, art and architecture there are many different forms of recourse to "old", which seems important to us today. Why? What's behind all this? Why do we long for it, so that we, as it seems, very imaginatively ever seek new forms of the old, or even collect it? Inspired by a variety of examples from these fields, the aim is to stimulate a discussion about this and to work out the "primal" human needs behind it. Antworthorizons from philosophy, such as those of Hartmut Böhme on "Fetishism and Culture" should help us in this.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

Time - what is that for us?

• earlier - now - later 
• before - currently - after
• past - present - future

What is it that constitutes the time consciousness of us? What do we distinguish when we think about time? How are the orders of time related to each other? Why is it so important for us, so that for some rather the past is important, while for others only the present counts and for third above all the future?

In the "Bild- und Tatkraft" of human beings (´the power to create images and to act´), as presented by the cultural philosopher Ernst Cassirer, a key for a deeper understanding can be found, which will serve as a starting point for discussion in the seminar.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

The dispute over difference.

Feminism and Postmodernism in the present *

The term "Postmodernism" became popular in the late 1970s through Jean-Francois Lyotard's book "La condition postmoderne" ("The postmodern knowledge"). With this, the French philosopher summarizes something that was already in the air before and that can be understood as a critique of modernity. Behind this lies the fact that old patterns or self-evident things are questioned and finally taken apart or "deconstructed". This deconstruction of the familiar played a central role, especially in the discussion about the role and self-image of women.

The seminar serves to deepen and discuss these connections in retrospect following Lyotard's encounter with Roland Barthes' "Myths of the Everyday" (1957) and with a view to feminism, taking into account Judith Butler's thesis on the politics of the performative or the regaining of the capacity to act.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible) 

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

* This is my English translation of the German book: Der Streit um Differenz, Feminismus und Postmoderne in der Gegenwart, ed. by Selya Benhabib, Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell, Nancy Fraser Fischer: Frankfurt 1993, the English edition was given a new title: Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange (Thinking Gender), New York: Routledge 1995.

What is Enlightenment - for women?

In his central text on "What is Enlightenment" from the year 1784, Immanuel Kant began his reflections with the central sentence "Enlightenment is man's exit from his self-inflicted immaturity".

In the seminar, three central questions concerning the situation of women in society will be discussed in the light of Kant. They concern:

1 Why is there an interest in preserving the immaturity - here of women?

2. What prevents women from bringing about change?

3. How do women get out of this position?

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Management Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

100 Years of Bauhaus (1919-2019) 

On the origin and development of a significant movement in Europe and the USA

The Bauhaus (in Weimar - Dessau - Berlin from 1919-1933) established a tradition that continues to have an impact in architecture and design today as the New Objectivity. The seminar aims to trace and discuss the causes and the development towards this objective approach in Europe and the USA in the 19th century as well as the reasons for its "end" with postmodernism in the 1980s.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

Humanism vs Pragmatism

The Anglo-American vs. European Thought

The European tradition is based on Humanism and thus upholds the ideals of the true, the beautiful, and the good from the long tradition from Plato to Kant.

American philosophy draws more on the sophist tradition of antiquity and is therefore much more influenced by pragmatic ideas culminating in a "relativist philosophy of utility." 

In the seminar, both orientations will be presented by means of initial questions and textual examples and discussed against the background of current events.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Management Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

Alsace or "ali-sāzzo".

Residents of the other bank of the Rhine. 

What does it mean to be at home? What is hidden behind the word home? 

The insights of postmodernism have triggered a great deal of uncertainty in this regard. When there is talk of "anything goes," in the sense of "nothing counts anymore," the fundamental question arises: Where do I belong? This was triggered by general globalization, initially "only" of industrial production, then of markets, and finally of the worldwide networking of everyone through the new media. With the formation of national, Europe-centered and international units, we are working against this and in the process are becoming increasingly alienated from our own identity. Where am I at home? The uncertainty triggers a reflection on one in distinction to the other. In this situation, it is not easy not to fall into extremes and to gain an alert awareness of oneself and one's own position in the here and now. 

To gain something positive from the disenchantment of the world and thus to view the philosophy of postmodernism in a new light is the purpose of the seminar. It will be opened and discussed using the example of our relations with the "ali-sāzzo" and thus with the residents of the other bank of the Rhine, Alsace. 

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

The simple life

Indigenous forms of housing and construction in North and South America and its after-effects in art

How do the forms of housing developed by the Native Americans of North and South America differ from those in Europe? What are these essentially influenced by? To what extent can they be described as relevant to their social orders? 

In addition to dealing with these questions, the two German Bauhaus emigrants Anni and Josef Albers in particular will be presented with a view to the aftermath.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Management Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

What is Enlightenment?

Immanuel Kant and the consequences for the educational reform by Wilhelm von Humboldt

"Enlightenment is man's exit from his self-inflicted immaturity". This sentence on the question of what the Enlightenment is made famous by the philosopher Immanuel Kant's 1784 contribution on the subject. To discuss this question against the historical background of enlightened absolutism is one thing. In addition, the consequences of this for Wilhelm von Humboldt have to be considered with regard to the educational system he introduced in Prussia from 1810. A system that then became a model for the whole of Germany and also in the USA. Finally, it is necessary to question whether what Kant envisioned is still valid.

Recent research from the field of cultural studies, especially by Hartmut Böhme (Fetishism and Culture, 2006) and additionally by myself on the topic (Responsibility, On Charging with Meaning in Art and Language, EKD, 5, 2013, 15-33) serve to address this.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

Free or unfree will?

About a dispute between Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther from 1524/25 until today

During the reign of Charles V, a dispute arose that is still relevant today and concerned the question of free will. It was carried out in particular by Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther. Erasmus, educator of Prince Charles and later Emperor Charles V, who is considered the "Prince of the Humanists" and was closely associated with the Roman Catholic Church, advocated it in his 1524 paper "Of Free Will", while Luther denied it in his 1525 paper "Of Unfree Will".

Today, the discussion on this question flared up again. Does man have free will or does biological determinacy exclude him? The neurosciences in particular have reopened the debate on this issue by assuming, on the basis of biological connections, that humans do not have free will. Wolf Singer is a very prominent advocate of this thesis, and together with 10 other leading scientists he caused a considerable public stir with his "Manifesto" 2004 in the journal Gehirn und Geist. (See: http://www.spektrum.de/thema/das-manifest/852357 (9.1.2019) as well as Wolf Singer, Ein neues Menschenbild? Talks on brain research, 2003)

As in the Renaissance, questions about responsibility for one's own actions are thus once again being raised today. In view of the current relevance of the issue, it is important to raise it anew and discuss it in the course of the seminar, in confrontation with the original texts of the two opponents.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Management Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

Primitivism?

Re-evaluation of indigenous in comparison to supposedly civilized forms of society

It is the German art and cultural scientist Aby M. Warburg, who after his journey to the Hopi Indians in the USA in 1895-96 and the snake rituals he observed, developed a completely new image of man, according to which there are no differences between indigenous and supposedly civilized, white forms of society. In 1923 he presented his results in a lecture.

In the Kant-expert and cultural scientist Ernst Cassirer he found a like-minded person in Hamburg in the 1920s. The latter presented his results on this approach in three volumes which appeared between 1923 and 1929. More recent research by the cultural scientist Hartmut Böhme, which he presented in his book "Fetishism and Culture" 2006, ties in with this.

Following on from this, it becomes clear that all people have always and still equally "believe" first and foremost that which we encounter is "true". To work out and understand these connections together is the main focus of the seminar.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Management Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

Architecture and philosophy 

in Absolutism and Enlightenment

The architecture of the Baroque era conveys in a special way how strongly it is shaped by ideas and a will for change, but also by consistent, very human principles. 

Mainly supported by the Roman Catholic Church, a new architectural style developed from Italy in the course of the Counter-Reformation, which first expressed itself in a restrained, then in an increasingly opulent display of splendour and was called Baroque. In contrast, north of the Alps, with a view to France, a different architectural concept prevails, in which Baroque-Classicist elements become more prominent with the rise of the nobility and their building projects.

Remarkably, the Italian architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini set the course for both directions of the Baroque. The trigger for this was that he was called to Paris in 1665 by the Sun King Louis XIV to rebuild the Louvre. However, his draft was not implemented there. Nevertheless, with the effect his design had, he made it clear to those responsible that they were looking for something else. They found the moulds for it in the new building of the castle in Versailles. As the palace of baroque classicism, it subsequently influenced numerous buildings and town planning of the German nobility as well. 

The extent to which each era seeks its own style becomes apparent a few decades later when new, utopian-looking building concepts were developed under the influence of Enlightenment ideas. They are listed under the collective term Revolutionary Architecture. However, the time was not yet ripe for its realisation.

The seminar aims to show how the change in the world between absolutism and the Enlightenment is expressed in architecture and which philosophical background considerations can be connected with it.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Management Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

On the "revolutionary potential" of the central building idea

Against the backdrop of the changed ideas of life and faith in the modern era at the beginning of the Renaissance, the recourse to the ancient models produced a very special architectural style that became influential for architecture throughout Europe and thus also in Germany, far beyond the borders of Italy: the central building.

Based on the joint description and analysis of an example, the background of the central building idea is to be further deepened not only through recourse to antiquity, but also by studying the writings of one of the most important architects of the Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti. Both are intended to contribute to working up the "revolutionary potential" of the central building idea with regard to a new, still fundamental understanding of the interaction of man in society.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

Turner and Sensualism

or „The Innocence of the Eye“

(John Ruskin, 1856)

The painter, watercolorist and graphic artist William Turner and the writer, painter, art historian and social philosopher John Ruskin have much more in common than just their interest in nature and art.

With the dematerialization of the representational, light, color, and atmospheric moods become the real subject of Turner's work. Ruskin's 1856 book Elements of Drawing and its reference to the "innocence of the eye" mark the height of the Romantic and Sensualist eras in Britain.

Through the joint analysis of Turner's works and the theoretical discussion of sensualism, the background to this will be worked out together in the seminar. 

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester, etc. are possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

Enthusiasm !?

On the meaning of a feeling inspired by the Muses

As daughters of Mnemosyne (Titaness and Goddess of Memory), the Muses bring order to chaos, as Plato (428-348 B.C.) states in the "Phaidros". The so-called "musical enthusiasm" proves to be central. Herein lies its modern meaning: namely to be an inspiration for artists, to create meaningful orders (compositions).

The seminar serves to counteract this limited conception by going back to antiquity in order to show its original meaning and its actual capacity and to make it fruitful for a modern understanding. The new reflections will then lead not only to a reconsideration of the role of the muses for the artistically active human being, but for all of us, by putting on a new ground the perception and understanding of all that is revealed to us.

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

price on request

"Form Follows Function":

About a new maxim in architecture and design in the USA and Europe

As early as the middle of the 19th century, in 1852, the American sculptor Horatio Greenough formulated the basic idea of "form follows function" (FFF)) in the USA, thus establishing a design principle that has been an integral part of the history of architecture and design ever since. 

The seminar serves to elaborate the basics of the principle and to discuss the fundamentally different understanding in the USA and Europe. For this purpose, the important "Chicago School of Design" will be introduced with a view to the USA. It dates back to the opening of the architectural firm Sullivan & Adler in 1881, which included the builder of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Frank Lloyd Wright. It is compared to the tradition in Europe established by the Werkbund and the Bauhaus, whose institutions were founded in Germany in 1901 and 1919, respectively.

2 x 90 min. block seminar 

(other formats such as lecture, academic semester, etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

"Zaha Hadid flies away from the ordinary and far into the future"*. 

Architectural Pioneer in Postmodernism

Postmodern architecture gave a new era its foundation. Ours. What it looks like, what characterizes it, and what ideas and aspirations it gives space to is the subject of this seminar. Alongside Frank O. Gehry, Jørn Utzon, Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid, who died far too early in 2016 at the age of 65, is one of the architects whose designs shaped the era.

Postmodernism as an expression of life and the striking way it is reflected in architecture is the subject of this seminar.

(* Alan Yentob, 2013, introduction to the BBC film portrait "Imagine ... Zaha Hadid: Who Dares Wins").

2 x 90 min. block seminar

(other formats like lecture, academic semester etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request

Nicholas of Cusa "De Beryllo" 1458: 

On a founder of Cultural Studies in the 15th century

How does the change of the world appear in the minds of people in the Renaissance (between 1350-1517)? In order to illustrate how medieval scholastic thinking changed into what shaped modern and thus contemporary thinking, I would like to introduce a personality who decisively advanced this path with his actions and thoughts: the German cardinal and philosopher Nikolaus von Kues (1401-1464).

For it is precisely he who opens up to us with remarkable clarity - starting from the divine One and in confrontation with Aristotle and Plato - the foundations of what we today call Cultural Studies. The seminar is intended to follow these basic ideas both with regard to the path of life and the writings of Nicholas of Cusa.

2 x 90 min. block seminar 

(other formats like lecture, academic semester, etc. possible)

Direction Dr. Martina Sauer

Time and place by arrangement

Price on request