Art, Politics, and Development
Published on 1. November 2013
Book
Hardback
214 pages
978-1-4399-1084-9 (ISBN)
Description
In his groundbreaking study, Art, Politics and Development, Philipp Lepenies contributes to the ongoing controversy about why the track record of development aid is so dismal. He asserts that development aid policies are grounded in a specific way of literally looking at the world. This "worldview" is the result of a mental conditioning that began with the invention of linear perspective in Renaissance art. It not only triggered the emergence of modern science and brought forth our Western notion of progress, but ultimately, development as well.Art, Politics, and Development examines this process by pulling from a range of disciplines, including art history, philosophy, literature, and social science. Lepenies not only explains the shortcomings of modern aid in a novel fashion, he also proposes how aid could be done differently.
In the series Politics, History and Social Change, edited by John C. Torpey
In the series Politics, History and Social Change, edited by John C. Torpey
Reviews / Votes
"While none of [the book's] components [are] original, the combination of them may be. The best section, on the invention of perspective... cites art historian Erwin Panofsky's Perspective as Symbolic Form. Lepenies isn't writing history; he's building an intellectual construct. Its end point is the assertion that contemporary thinking on development supports a linear concept of progress and that we possess a privileged viewpoint on it."--Library Journal, October 2013More details
Series
Edition
New
Language
English
Place of publication
Philadelphia PA
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
428 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4399-1084-9 (9781439910849)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Philipp H. Lepenies is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany.
Content
PrefaceIntroduction1. Perspective: A Window to the World and to the FuturePERSPECTIVEMedieval Art, Optics, and Perspectives * The Invention of Perspective: The Mirror * From the "Intercisione" to the Vanishing Point * The Window * The Role of Mathematics * Rediscovery or InventionAnticipation of a New Weltanschauung: Transgressing Medieval BoundariesThe Iconic Gaze * The Window Revisited * Iconic Space, Subjective Objectivity, and the Invention of Infinity * Friction with Religion * The Artist as Creator * The Horizon * The World and the Future * A Case in Point: The CittA Ideale of Berlin2. From Art to WorldviewThe Disenchantment of the Physical WorldThe Universe Open to Our Gaze * The Order to Conquer Nature * Everything Has a Mathematical Counterpart * The Predictable Universe * Control through Calculation Toward a New Horizon: The Discovery of Linear Time and the Idea of ProgressThe Threat of Doomsday Comes to an End * Circularity and Linearity * Progress as the Advancement of Knowledge * Turgot and the Progress of the Human MindCondorcet: From the Linear Perspective Worldview to the Development Mind-setA Life of Science, Action, and Tragedy * Social Mathematics * The Esquisse: The Philosophy of Future Progress * The Future and the Others * Mathematics, the Future, and ActionThe Notion of the "Other" prior to the EsquisseAlternative Views of Otherness * Slavery and the SociEtE des Amis des Noirs The Development Mind-set Further Concretized: The Idea of Civilizing and CivilizationThe Meaning of Civilization * The Destiny of All Nations * The Need for Education and Educators * Civilizing by Teaching PerspectiveLinear Perspective and the Development Mind-set: A Summary of Key Concepts3. Modern DevelopmentThe Contemporary Development Mind-setUs and Them * Endless and Dynamic Progress * The Aim of All AidEducating the "Others"Development as Knowledge Transfer * Knowledge Transfer in Historical PerspectiveThe "Rage de Vouloir Conclure"Knowledge Transfer as a Hindrance to Development and Change * The Visiting Economist Syndrome 115 * Anthropological Views * The Earth Is Not Flat * Planners * Unhelpful Helpers * Summary4. CounterperspectivesResistance to the Perspective WorldviewAntiperspective Movements in Art HistoryArab Views * The Perspective Wars of Paris * Through the Eye of a Cow: Rationalist versus Empiricist Perspective * SummaryProposals for Development AlternativesReversals * Searchers * Midwives * PossibilismA Nonlinear ApproachNonlinearity * Challenges * The Way Forward: Self-Critical Historical Awareness and Knowledge CoalitionsConclusionNotesReferencesIndex