Design, Nature, and Beauty: The Aesthetics of the Human Body

In this exciting new course, we will review different attitudes towards the human body across history, where it has been seen as either profane or sacred. Often concealed in many cultures for fear that it would arouse passion, in other times and places it was worshipped as a portal to the divine. For example throughout the Renaissance, the great masters painted magnificent nudes to represent an ideal of beauty. The human body has been depicted in two dimensional pictographs, abstract art, medicine, psychology, and sociological studies. Our ideas about beauty and truth are reflected in our ideals about the body. Are we truly created in the image of something greater? Or is the body simply a product of intention, a container for a soul, as early mystics stated? What drives us to pursue fashion over the centuries? Is it simple sexual attraction or does it point toward a greater drive for self‐perfection that is a part of our consciousness? Join us and explore breathtaking views of nature, design, and the human body like never before.

David Chandross holds a doctorate in the philosophy of education and has served as the president of the Canadian Society for Philosophical Practice. His current research is in the field of education in long‐term care, both for patients and for health professionals. He is also actively involved with research in addiction medicine and innovative treatment practices based on the use of games and simulations in health care.”