Jorge J. E. Gracia 
Images of Thought [PDF ebook] 
Philosophical Interpretations of Carlos Estevez’s Art

Is philosophy hopelessly opposed to art? Images of Thought answers negatively, claiming that visual images can be used effectively to grasp complex thoughts, and philosophy can be deployed to deepen our understanding of art. Jorge J. E. Gracia provides philosophical interpretations of seventeen works by the Cuban American artist Carlos Estévez that engage such topics as self-knowledge, the nature of the universe, faith and reason, permanence and change, the self and the other, women and men, freedom and determinism, providence, and predestination. The study’s novelty lies both in its use of the interpretation of art to understand traditional philosophical problems and the theory it proposes concerning the nature of interpretation. The clarity of the discussion and an engaging style make it accessible to a wider audience.

Cuprins

List of Illustrations



Preface



1. Art and Philosophy



2. Carlos Estévez and His Art


Part 1: Philosophical Interpretations of Estévez’s Works Knowledge



3. Know Thyself



4. I Am Myself and My Circumstances



5. Everything We Know Is Numbers



6. No Man Knows the Whole Truth



7. Faith Seeks Understanding Reality



8. You Cannot Step into the Same River Twice



9. No Part of the Whole Is Empty



10. There Is No New Thing under the Sun



11. The Living Creature Is a World Order in Miniature Society



12. Negotiating Identities



13. What Then Is a Race?



14. Imagined Communities



15. I-Thou



16. Male and Female Destiny



17. The Will Does Not Desire of Necessity



18. The Very Hairs of Your Head Are All Numbered



19. God Has Predestined His Elect




Part 2: Philosophical Interpretations and Art



20. Interpretation



21. Art



22. Philosophical Interpretations of Art



Appendices

Appendix 1 Interview with Carlos Estévez

Appendix 2 Carlos Estévez’s Biographical Chronology

Appendix 3 Carlos Estévez’s Images of Thought, Exhibition Checklist



Notes

Bibliography

Index

Despre autor

Jorge J. E. Gracia is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Chair in Philosophy at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. He is the author of several books, including
Metaphysics and Its Task: The Search for the Categorial Foundation of Knowledge, and the coeditor (with Lynette M. F. Bosch and Isabel Alvarez Borland) of
Identity, Memory, and Diaspora: Voices of Cuban-American Artists, Writers, and Philosophers, both also published by SUNY Press.