The question of the representativeness of the Western canon is high on the agenda. Not only at museums or on the opinion pages, but certainly also in art colleges, this question is alive and well. Students and teachers no longer always recognise themselves in a canon that is predominantly white and male, and belonging to a social upper class.
In the field of art theory (and philosophy in general), the question is as pressing as elsewhere. It is not as if the questions of the great canonical philosophers of art of the past have suddenly become irrelevant. One does wonder, however, whether these are all the questions art theorists can and should ask.
This research project ties in with the 'Philosophical Library Diotima' initiative launched by Uitgeverij Letterwerk in 2021. This is a philosophical series focusing on the wonderful and still untranslated books of (among others) Susanne Langer, Gloria Anzaldúa, María Zambrano, Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch and others.