Making Art and Living the Authentic Life - December 14, 2023

As part of programming for Inside/Outside (on view until February 18), an exhibition of recent contemporary acquisitions, Prof. Caroline Arruda will give a talk that combines philosophy with art to think about how artists show us what a life well lived might look like. Contemporary culture sees artists as being authentic because many pursue their creative goals above all else, sacrificing family or a stable life to realize their dreams. While few of us doggedly pursue our goals with this intensity, artists still do have something to teach the rest of us about living authentically and living well.

Caroline Arruda is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Tulane University. She published widely in leading philosophical journals, including Synthese, Mind & Language, Ratio, and Australasian Journal of Philosophy. She has had visiting appointments at Australian National University and University of Oslo, Norway, and she recently delivered talks at the University of California-Riverside, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Vienna, Université de Montréal, the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Israel, and Bilkent University, Turkey, among many others universities.