Ästhetische Werte und Design

Does beauty have a purpose? What is "real" art? Can pictures lie? Finding answers to these central concepts and problems in art theory, from the perspective of analytical philosophy, is the aim of a two-year-long series of events, "Philosophie : Kunst 2009-2011", produced by the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Federal Cultural Foundation) and presented at five German museums. Each volume of this five-part series documents one of the series of events in one of the museums, concentrating on a single subject, such as design, education in art, or photography. This first volume is devoted to the topics covered at the symposium held at the Neues Museum in Nuremberg, and examines the question of whether design objects should and can be judged according to the same aesthetics standards used for works of art.