Homo Aestheticus
The Invention of Taste in the Democratic Age
Translated by Robert de Loaiza
280 pages
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6 x 9
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© 1993
Can 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.
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.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. The Revolution of Taste
2. Between Heart and Reason
3. The Kantian Moment: The Subject of Reflection
4. The Hegelian Moment: The Absolute Subject or the Death of Art
5. The Nietzschean Moment: The Shattered Subject and the Onset of Contemporary Aesthetics
6. The Decline of the Avant-Gardes: Postmodernity
7. The Problem of Ethics in an Age of Aesthetics
Notes
Index
Introduction
1. The Revolution of Taste
2. Between Heart and Reason
3. The Kantian Moment: The Subject of Reflection
4. The Hegelian Moment: The Absolute Subject or the Death of Art
5. The Nietzschean Moment: The Shattered Subject and the Onset of Contemporary Aesthetics
6. The Decline of the Avant-Gardes: Postmodernity
7. The Problem of Ethics in an Age of Aesthetics
Notes
Index
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Philosophy: Aesthetics | Ethics | Philosophy of Society
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