Does beauty have a purpose? What is “real” art? Can pictures lie? Finding answers to these central concepts and problems associated with art theory and the examination of art from the perspective of analytical philosophy is the aim of Kunst:Philosophie 2009–2011, a two-year-long series of events produced by the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and the German Federal Cultural Foundation, and being presented at five German museums. Each volume of this five-part series documents the series of events taking place at one of the museums with its respective focus, such as design, art education, or photography.
This first volume is devoted to the topics covered at the symposium held at the Neues Museum in Nuremberg. It examines the question of whether design objects should and can be judged according to the same aesthetics standards applied to works of art. The second volume documents the conference that took place at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover and explores the demands made on museum architecture.