Homo Aestheticus: The Invention of Taste in the Democratic AgeCan subjective, individual taste be reconciled with an objective, universal standard? In Homo Aestheticus, Luc Ferry argues that this central problem of aesthetic theory is fundamentally related to the political problem of democratic individualism. Ferry's treatise begins in the mid-1600s with the simultaneous invention of the notions of taste (the essence of art as subjective pleasure) and modern democracy (the idea of the State as a consensus among individuals). He explores the differences between subjectivity and individuality by examining aesthetic theory as developed first by Kant's predecessors and then by Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and proponents of the avant-garde. Ferry discerns two "moments" of the avant-garde aesthetic: the hyperindividualistic iconoclasm of creating something entirely new, and the hyperrealistic striving to achieve an extraordinary truth. The tension between these two, Ferry argues, preserves an essential element of the Enlightenment concern for reconciling the subjective and the objective—a problem that is at once aesthetic, ethical, and political. Rejecting postmodern proposals for either a radical break with or return to tradition, Ferry embraces a postmodernism that recasts Enlightenment notions of value as a new intersubjectivity. His original analysis of the growth and decline of the twentieth-century avant-garde movement sheds new light on the connections between aesthetics, ethics, and political theory. |
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... Absolute Subject or the Death of Art 114 FIVE The Nietzschean Moment : The Shattered subject and the Onset of Contemporary Aesthetics SIX The Decline of the Avant - Gardes : 148 Postmodernity 192 SEVEN The Problem of Ethics in an Age of ...
... Absolute Subject or the Death of Art 114 FIVE The Nietzschean Moment : The Shattered subject and the Onset of Contemporary Aesthetics SIX The Decline of the Avant - Gardes : 148 Postmodernity 192 SEVEN The Problem of Ethics in an Age of ...
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Contents
ONE The Revolution of Taste | 7 |
TWO Between Heart and Reason | 33 |
The Subject of Reflection | 77 |
The Shattered Subject | 148 |
SEVEN The Problem of Ethics in an Age of Aesthetics | 246 |
Common terms and phrases
absolute Aesthetica aesthetics antinomy art's artist autonomy avant-garde Baumgarten beautiful object become Cartesian classicism classicists concept consciousness contemporary contrary Critique Critique of Judgment cubism culture defined Descartes dialectical difference divine doubt Dubos empiricism essence ethics existence expression fact faculty feeling finite finitude fourth dimension genius geometries grasp harmony Hegel Hegelian Heidegger Heidegger's historicism human Hume ibid Ideas of reason imagination individual infinite intelligible interpretation Jouffret judgment of taste Kant Kant's Kantian Leibniz limit logical longer Luc Ferry Marcel Duchamp meaning metaphysics Metzinger modern monadology monads moral nature neo-Kantians Nietzsche Nietzsche's Nietzschean notion painters paradox perspective Phenomenology philosophy Platonism point of view postmodern presentation principle problem pure question radical rational reality reflection relativism representation sensible world sensual sensuous sentiment space sphere spirit sublime symbolic art takes theory thing thought tion tradition transcendental true truth understand unity universal values