Naar aanleiding van zijn nieuwe boek The Objective Eye, zal John Hyman (Filosofie, Oxford) een lezing houden over realisme in de kunst, en de manier waarop de mens de werkelijkheid waarneemt.

Hyman zelf over zijn lezing: 'Picasso described Velazquez as the true painter of reality; Gainsborough summed up his own approach to painting with the remark, 'I like the truth and daylight'; Van Gogh said that his aim in painting was to be simply honest before nature. But from Plato on, philosophers have challenged the idea that art can be a witness to reality, or a source of truth. Today, some philosophers claim that paintings are designs that trick the visual brain, while others say that art is a curious kind of language, less like a mirror image of reality and more like a text. In this lecture I shall cut a path through this labyrinth of ideas, and consider what philosophy can teach us about art.'

De discussie achteraf zal geleid worden door Herman Philipse.