Apollo and Dionysus

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Course 1A ‘Apollo and Dionysus’ provides an overview of the development of philosophical thinking about art and culture in the history of Western civilization. It focuses upon a number of influential world views and their implications for society – from Socrates and Plato to contemporary philosophy. The starting point is the continuous tension between very rational, ‘Apollonian’, philosophical schools of thought on the one hand, and some alternative, ‘Dionysian’ approaches to on the other, as expressed in works of art. For example, in Greek tragedy the inadequacy of an exclusively rational approach – and indeed of any form of one-sidedness – is a major theme. This interdisciplinary course, then, not only introduces the main Western philosophical traditions in their historical context, but also deals with more implicit images of ‘the good life’ as expressed in works of literature and art.