On the 300th anniversary of his birth, the Institute of Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Debrecen paid tribute to the work of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant with a conference. The two-day professional conference, held on November 7-8, focused on the aesthetic dimension of Kantian critical thinking, which was interpreted from various perspectives by speakers from Hungary and abroad.
The choice of topic is unusual, as this area is generally less focused on in Kant’s research. However, Kant’s third critique, The Critique of Judgment, plays a cardinal role in the development of modern aesthetics.
Through Kant (1724-1804), modern philosophical thought was born, and his epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic insights remain indispensable and highly inspiring today. Quoting his own words: “Sapere aude!” – or in other words: “Dare to think!” – Tamás Valastyán, director of the Institute of Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities, praised the philosopher for the hirek.unideb.hu portal.
Speakers from several institutions across the country attended the event, including the Institute of Philosophy of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, the University of Pécs, the University of Szeged, and the Wesley John College, as well as from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Ottó Hévizi, one of the leading figures in Hungarian Kant research, participated as both a presiding officer and a speaker at the conference. He has previously contributed to Hungarian editions of Kant’s texts and has taught the most exciting aspects of Kantian thought to generations of students at the university’s Institute of Philosophy, in addition to working at the Lukács Archive and the Institute of Philosophy of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
The professional conference was opened by a presentation by the historian of philosophy János Weiss entitled “The Critique of Taste.” Other presentations were also given, including ones on the rich reception of Kantian aesthetics in political, legal, ethical, artistic, and literary contexts.
The organizers, Tamás Valastyán and Péter Tánczos, plan to make the edited materials from the presentations available to the interested public in both print and online formats.
(unideb.hu)
