City Art Gallery Lectures: Schopenhauer Event

According to the founder of modern philosophy, Rene Descartes, being known to me with certainty is an essential part of what it is for a thought to be one of my thoughts. But through the notion of the unconscious, we have come to believe with Freud that ‘the ego is not master in its own house’. This idea has deep philosophical roots. Rousseau, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche all anticipated Freud in seeing consciousness as merely a 'surface' laid over the real sources of our actions, which lie in the 'underworld of the soul'. After Freud too, the unconscious continues to intrigue philosophers: Wittgenstein, for example, likened his own way of philosophizing to psychoanalysis but also saw Freud as ‘propounding a new mythology’. This series of talks will explore the complex ways in which philosophers have inspired and questioned our belief in the unconscious.

 

The talks will be held on Saturdays at 2pm at the City Art Gallery in Southampton, will last approximately 30 minutes and be followed by 30 minutes of discussion with the audience. Please note the City Art Gallery Lectures are free of charge and there is no need to book, just turn up.