Susanne Knauth Langer (1895-1985) was an internationally recognized philosopher who lived a quiet and somewhat reclusive life in Old Lyme. She was good friends with the Old Lyme painter Thomas Ingle and his friend Charles Palmer. Langer grew up comfortably on the West Side of Manhattan and graduated from Radcliffe College, taking courses at Harvard with famous philosophers. But she was more at home in the woods (her nickname, acquired as a child, was in her mother tongue die Waldhexe – witch of the woods). When she took a position at Connecticut College in 1954, she moved to Old Lyme and lived in an old New England farmhouse on 81 Neck Road.

Langer, a slight, short, athletic, and intense woman, was a famous philosopher mostly unknown to those who encountered her in town. One of her most notable achievements was her contributions to aesthetics and the philosophy of art. No philosopher anywhere – certainly no philosopher in the U.S. – contributed in the middle decades pf the 20 th century more to our understanding of the arts. She herself was an amateur but gifted cellist and pianist who would regularly play classical music for the sheer pleasure of doing so with a local Episcopal priest (Father Brown, a violinist) and a professional organist (Mr. Dendy, a teacher at Connecticut College). Her sister was a dancer and her niece a sculptor. Langer’s life was steeped in the arts and her mind was devoted to deepening our understanding of music, dance, painting, theatre, and even cinema. Hence, it seems especially fitting for the Lyme Art Association to host a talk aimed at introducing this famous philosopher to “neighbors” who might have no idea of her importance or even her existence. Susanne K. Langer’s life, thought, and the reception of that thought, especially in its bearing on the arts, will be the focus of a presentation by Vincent Colapietro (Liberal Arts Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University; Center for the Humanities, URI) who has been a careful student of Langer’s writings since he encountered her work as an undergraduate over fifty years ago. His publications include “Susanne Langer on Artistic Creativity and Creations” and “Symbols and the Evolution of Mind: Susanne Langer’s Final Bequest to Semiotics.”

Vincent M. Colapietro is donating his stipend and the proceeds of this art talk to support the Lyme Art Association’s programming!

About the Presenter and Philosopher: Vincent M. Colapietro