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| Marcus Steinweg | |||||||||||||||
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| PHILOSOPHY OF ASSERTION 47TH LECTURE AT THE BIJLMER SPINOZA-FESTIVAL, JUNE 23, 2009 by Marcus Steinweg |
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| (Abstract) Art and philosophy are forms of self-acceleration toward the dimension of the impossible. Here at least, in art and philosophy, it makes sense to fight for the impossible. Once again, sound common sense will have, let us say, logical right on its side to contest that such a struggle is sensible. Against this I think that art and philosophy are, on the one hand, the confrontation with possibilities and, on the other, the refusal of possibilities in order at least not to exclude the opening of the optional texture: a change. The opening toward the impossible is part of the dynamics of a subject which affirms itself as the subject of self-acceleration toward the dimension of universal contingency. Insofar, art and philosophy exist not only as figures of resistance, but also especially as figures of self-affirmation, of an affirmation which, instead of being fantastic or illusory, recognizes its impossibility as the condition of possibility of its self-assertion. It is these two categories which combine in the art work: 1) resistance against established certainties and truths, and 2) opening toward truth as the implicit limit of the dimension of facts. An experience of truth shows me that reality is not everything. Not everything — that means: not a closed, determined space. |
