Meeting 48: Philosophy of Fashion

Marilynn Johnson, a philosophy postdoc at Florida International University, will lead this meeting.

Historically philosophers have paid little attention to fashion. At the same time, how we groom and adorn ourselves is clearly an important part of modern life. Fashion also has much in common with subjects philosophers have developed elaborate theories about, such as art and language. In this presentation we will begin by examining how we might define fashion and will consider whether or not it is the sort of thing philosophers ought to be concerned with. Then, we will turn to look at philosophical work by Roland Barthes on the connections between fashion and language. Finally, we will examine parallels between fashion and language by considering the general importance of intentions in the creation and attribution of meaning.

The reading, a selection from Svendsen's "Fashion: A Philosophy," is available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/kcftlensg9q5mek/Fashion%26Philosophy_SvendsenReading.pdf?dl=0