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    Art, Politics, and Development

    Philipp H Lepenies (Author)

    9781439910849

    Hardback, published 1 November 2013

    214 pages
    22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.666 kg

    In his groundbreaking study, Art, Politics and Development, Philipp Lepenies contributes to the ongoing controversy about why the track record of development aid is so dismal. He asserts that development aid policies are grounded in a specific way of literally looking at the world. This "worldview" is the result of a mental conditioning that began with the invention of linear perspective in Renaissance art. It not only triggered the emergence of modern science and brought forth our Western notion of progress, but ultimately, development as well.
    Art, Politics, and Development examines this process by pulling from a range of disciplines, including art history, philosophy, literature, and social science. Lepenies not only explains the shortcomings of modern aid in a novel fashion, he also proposes how aid could be done differently.

    In the series Politics, History and Social Change, edited by John C. Torpey

    Preface
    Introduction
    1. Perspective: A Window to the World and to the Future
    PERSPECTIVE
    Medieval Art, Optics, and Perspectives  •
    The Invention of Perspective: The Mirror  •
    From the “
    Intercisione”
    to the Vanishing Point •
    The Window •
    The Role of Mathematics •
    Rediscovery or Invention
    Anticipation of a New Weltanschauung: Transgressing Medieval Boundaries
    The Iconic Gaze •
    The Window Revisited •
    Iconic Space, Subjective Objectivity, and the Invention of Infinity •
    Friction with Religion •
    The Artist as Creator •
    The Horizon •
    The World and the Future •
    A Case in Point: The CittÀ
    Ideale of Berlin
    2. From Art to Worldview
    The Disenchantment of the Physical World
    The Universe Open to Our Gaze •
    The Order to Conquer Nature •
    Everything Has a Mathematical Counterpart •
    The Predictable Universe •
    Control through Calculation 
    Toward a New Horizon: The Discovery of Linear Time and the Idea of Progress
    The Threat of Doomsday Comes to an End •
    Circularity and Linearity •
    Progress as the Advancement of Knowledge •
    Turgot and the Progress of the Human Mind
    Condorcet: From the Linear Perspective Worldview to the Development Mind-set
    A Life of Science, Action, and Tragedy •
    Social Mathematics •
    The Esquisse: The Philosophy of Future Progress •
    The Future and 
    the Others •
    Mathematics, the Future, and Action
    The Notion of the “
    Other”
    prior to the Esquisse
    Alternative Views of Otherness •
    Slavery and the SociÉ
    tÉ
    des Amis des Noirs 
    The Development Mind-set Further Concretized: The Idea of Civilizing and Civilization
    The Meaning of Civilization •
    The Destiny of All Nations •
    The Need for Education and Educators •
    Civilizing by Teaching Perspective
    Linear Perspective and the Development Mind-set: A Summary of Key Concepts
    3. Modern Development
    The Contemporary Development Mind-set
    Us and Them •
    Endless and Dynamic Progress •
    The Aim of All Aid
    Educating the “
    Others”
    Development as Knowledge Transfer •
    Knowledge Transfer in Historical Perspective
    The “
    Rage de Vouloir Conclure”
    Knowledge Transfer as a Hindrance to Development and Change •
    The Visiting Economist Syndrome 115 •
    Anthropological Views •
    The Earth Is Not Flat •
    Planners •
    Unhelpful Helpers •
    Summary
    4. Counterperspectives
    Resistance to the Perspective Worldview
    Antiperspective Movements in Art History
    Arab Views •
    The Perspective Wars of Paris •
    Through the Eye of a Cow: Rationalist versus Empiricist Perspective •
    Summary
    Proposals for Development Alternatives
    Reversals •
    Searchers •
    Midwives •
    Possibilism
    A Nonlinear Approach
    Nonlinearity •
    Challenges •
    The Way Forward: Self-Critical Historical Awareness and Knowledge Coalitions
    Conclusion
    Notes
    References
    Index
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