Meeting art with words: the philosopher as anthropologist

Abstract

Taking up Rietveld’s challenge for philosophers to join with artists in investigating the questions of how to live better, this comment argues (a) that this conjunction of philosophy and art is already underway in the discipline of anthropology, (b) that it need not be limited to non-verbal investigations and (c) that a focus on the performative power of words enables us to close the gap between visual and textual expressions.