The conference on French Philosophy and Contemporary Art, organized by Richard Shusterman at Florida Atlantic University to coincide with Art Basel in nearby Miami Beach (December 5 to 9, 2007), featured a select group of scholars in philosophy from France, Denmark, and the United States to consider the connections between philosophers and artists of the modern and post-modern eras. A central theme underlying many of the papers was to ask questions such as these: In what ways does the French philosophical tradition remain useful as a tool for understanding artistic practices of the twenty-first century? How can examples of recent engagements between philosophers and artists shed light on the present? For the most part the speakers focused the extent to which philosophy has taken inspiration from the arts , and the extent to which philosophy has provided impetus for creative developments in the arts.

Participants included Dominique Chateau (U of Paris), “De quelques relations atmosphériques entre la philosophie (frençaise) et l’art;” Jean – Pierre Cometi (U of Aix en Provence), “J’nen veux rien savior! Ce que l’art dit à la philosophique et une figures de la beauté; Else Bukdahl, (Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts) ” Dirte Kahlin and Joachim Hamou (Nomad Academy, Denmark), “Eye Though Walked-Nomad”; Curtis Carter, (Marquette University), “Philosopher and Artist: Unsettled Boundaries,”; Marie-Dominique Berthet (UFM Martinique), “Sartre et les arts plastiques de son temps,”; Richard Conte (University of Paris “Quel usage les artistes font-ils de la pholosophie?,” Cjrostp[je Loj, (Art Press Fresh Théorie), “Art et économie un malaise esthétique?,”; Marc Jimenez (Univeristy of Paris), “La Philosophie de l’art face au défi technocientifique.”

Curtis Carter