David J. Elliott
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195385076
- eISBN:
- 9780199865512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385076.003.02
- Subject:
- Music, Psychology of Music
Since the 1950s, music educators have witnessed striking developments in the philosophical foundations of their profession. This chapter explores and interprets these developments and, in the ...
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Since the 1950s, music educators have witnessed striking developments in the philosophical foundations of their profession. This chapter explores and interprets these developments and, in the process, to historically situate the concepts of praxialism in music education. The chapter accounts for developments within each decade since 1950 and shows that the primary philosophical perspectives of the last fifty years may be termed “utilitarian” and “aesthetic” and that a new praxial philosophy of music education has appeared in recent years. The evolution of music education as aesthetic education is discussed, along with alternative perspectives on music education, trends impacting the development of aesthetic education, and questions surrounding the aesthetic rationale for music in education. In the 1990s, three themes emerged as having strong connections with the past: the use of insights from cognitive psychology as bases for exploring the nature and meaning of musical behavior and music education; the need for increased attention to philosophy in teacher education programs; and continued emphasis on defining the relationship between music education philosophy and advocacy.Less
Since the 1950s, music educators have witnessed striking developments in the philosophical foundations of their profession. This chapter explores and interprets these developments and, in the process, to historically situate the concepts of praxialism in music education. The chapter accounts for developments within each decade since 1950 and shows that the primary philosophical perspectives of the last fifty years may be termed “utilitarian” and “aesthetic” and that a new praxial philosophy of music education has appeared in recent years. The evolution of music education as aesthetic education is discussed, along with alternative perspectives on music education, trends impacting the development of aesthetic education, and questions surrounding the aesthetic rationale for music in education. In the 1990s, three themes emerged as having strong connections with the past: the use of insights from cognitive psychology as bases for exploring the nature and meaning of musical behavior and music education; the need for increased attention to philosophy in teacher education programs; and continued emphasis on defining the relationship between music education philosophy and advocacy.
Jeffrey Morrison
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159124
- eISBN:
- 9780191673504
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159124.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This book examines the pivotal role of Johann Joachim Winckelmann as an arbiter of classical taste. It identifies the key features of Winckelmann's treatment of classical beauty, particularly in his ...
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This book examines the pivotal role of Johann Joachim Winckelmann as an arbiter of classical taste. It identifies the key features of Winckelmann's treatment of classical beauty, particularly in his famous descriptions, and investigates his teaching of the appreciation of beauty. The work identifies and examines the point at which theory and descriptive method are merged in a practical attempt to offer aesthetic education. The publications and correspondence of Winckelmann's pupils are offered as criteria for judging the success of his mission, eventually casting doubt upon his concept of aesthetic education, both in theory and practice. The final chapter of the book is concerned with Goethe's reception of Winckelmann, which shows unusual sensitivity to his work's aesthetic core. It also shows how Goethe's own writing on Italy reveals a process of independent aesthetic education akin to Winckelmann's and distinct from his pupils. The work is founded in close textual analysis but also covers the principles of the aesthetic education, the value of the Grand Tour, and the role of Rome in the European imagination.Less
This book examines the pivotal role of Johann Joachim Winckelmann as an arbiter of classical taste. It identifies the key features of Winckelmann's treatment of classical beauty, particularly in his famous descriptions, and investigates his teaching of the appreciation of beauty. The work identifies and examines the point at which theory and descriptive method are merged in a practical attempt to offer aesthetic education. The publications and correspondence of Winckelmann's pupils are offered as criteria for judging the success of his mission, eventually casting doubt upon his concept of aesthetic education, both in theory and practice. The final chapter of the book is concerned with Goethe's reception of Winckelmann, which shows unusual sensitivity to his work's aesthetic core. It also shows how Goethe's own writing on Italy reveals a process of independent aesthetic education akin to Winckelmann's and distinct from his pupils. The work is founded in close textual analysis but also covers the principles of the aesthetic education, the value of the Grand Tour, and the role of Rome in the European imagination.
David J. Elliott
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195385076
- eISBN:
- 9780199865512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385076.003.12
- Subject:
- Music, Psychology of Music
In his 1995 book Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education, David Elliott offers a comprehensive challenge to traditional aesthetic philosophies of music education and an in-depth analysis ...
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In his 1995 book Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education, David Elliott offers a comprehensive challenge to traditional aesthetic philosophies of music education and an in-depth analysis of curriculum theory, daringly proposing to root music, and thus music education, in actual circumstances of musical praxis. His critique of the abstract, atomistic content and isolated skills of the conventional objectives-oriented and structure-of-the discipline approaches to music curriculum drew upon and thus reflected the most recent trends in curriculum theory in the early 1990s. This chapter examines the three dominant philosophical traditions that have had direct consequences for both general education and music education — idealism, realism, and neoscholasticism — and, in particular, for the current obsession of both with standards and for what in North America, at least, has been dubbed “music education as aesthetic education”. After mentioning certain aspects of these traditions that may have subtle echoes in Elliott's praxial philosophy, alternative philosophies of more recent vintage are considered.Less
In his 1995 book Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education, David Elliott offers a comprehensive challenge to traditional aesthetic philosophies of music education and an in-depth analysis of curriculum theory, daringly proposing to root music, and thus music education, in actual circumstances of musical praxis. His critique of the abstract, atomistic content and isolated skills of the conventional objectives-oriented and structure-of-the discipline approaches to music curriculum drew upon and thus reflected the most recent trends in curriculum theory in the early 1990s. This chapter examines the three dominant philosophical traditions that have had direct consequences for both general education and music education — idealism, realism, and neoscholasticism — and, in particular, for the current obsession of both with standards and for what in North America, at least, has been dubbed “music education as aesthetic education”. After mentioning certain aspects of these traditions that may have subtle echoes in Elliott's praxial philosophy, alternative philosophies of more recent vintage are considered.
Frederick Beiser
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199282821
- eISBN:
- 9780191603068
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019928282X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This book is an attempt to rehabilitate Schiller as a philosopher. It defends his philosophy against his Marxist, post-modernist and Kantian critics. Some chapters are exegetical, others thematic. ...
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This book is an attempt to rehabilitate Schiller as a philosopher. It defends his philosophy against his Marxist, post-modernist and Kantian critics. Some chapters are exegetical, others thematic. The exegetical chapters (2-4) re-examine the arguments and context of some of his most important writings, Kallias Briefe, Anmut und Würde, and the Äesthetische Briefe. The thematic chapters treat Schiller’s intellectual development, his concept of freedom, his theory of tragedy, and his dispute with the Kantians. In defense of Schiller, it is argued that his project for an objective aesthetic was not misguided in principle, that he does not conflate aesthetic and moral values, that his concept of the beautiful soul should not be confused with its Rousseauian variants, and that his concept of grace does not mean acting from natural sentiment. It is also contended that Schiller offers a plausible revision of Kant’s moral philosophy, an interesting response to the problem of freedom in post-Kantian philosophy, and a much underrated theory of tragedy, and a remarkable attempt to square the demands of aesthetic autonomy with moral purpose in the arts. The aim is not to sanctify or whitewash Schiller, but to show that his critics have largely misunderstood him.Less
This book is an attempt to rehabilitate Schiller as a philosopher. It defends his philosophy against his Marxist, post-modernist and Kantian critics. Some chapters are exegetical, others thematic. The exegetical chapters (2-4) re-examine the arguments and context of some of his most important writings, Kallias Briefe, Anmut und Würde, and the Äesthetische Briefe. The thematic chapters treat Schiller’s intellectual development, his concept of freedom, his theory of tragedy, and his dispute with the Kantians. In defense of Schiller, it is argued that his project for an objective aesthetic was not misguided in principle, that he does not conflate aesthetic and moral values, that his concept of the beautiful soul should not be confused with its Rousseauian variants, and that his concept of grace does not mean acting from natural sentiment. It is also contended that Schiller offers a plausible revision of Kant’s moral philosophy, an interesting response to the problem of freedom in post-Kantian philosophy, and a much underrated theory of tragedy, and a remarkable attempt to square the demands of aesthetic autonomy with moral purpose in the arts. The aim is not to sanctify or whitewash Schiller, but to show that his critics have largely misunderstood him.
Jeffrey Morrison
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159124
- eISBN:
- 9780191673504
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159124.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter examines the qualifications of Johann Hermann von Reidesel as a pupil for Winckelmann and the type of training he underwent. It attempts to determine whether Riedesel's published work ...
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This chapter examines the qualifications of Johann Hermann von Reidesel as a pupil for Winckelmann and the type of training he underwent. It attempts to determine whether Riedesel's published work and other statements on art indicate the complete realization of Winckelmann's plans for an aesthetic education. It also examines the five main sources of information on Riedesel's approach to art: Briefe, Sendschreiben eines Liebhabers, Sizilien, Levante, and the Scottish letters.Less
This chapter examines the qualifications of Johann Hermann von Reidesel as a pupil for Winckelmann and the type of training he underwent. It attempts to determine whether Riedesel's published work and other statements on art indicate the complete realization of Winckelmann's plans for an aesthetic education. It also examines the five main sources of information on Riedesel's approach to art: Briefe, Sendschreiben eines Liebhabers, Sizilien, Levante, and the Scottish letters.
David Duff
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199572748
- eISBN:
- 9780191721960
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572748.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Traditional accounts of Romanticism posit a shift in the hierarchy of genres involving a downgrading of didactic poetry and a revaluation of lyric. The chapter challenges this view, tracing the ...
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Traditional accounts of Romanticism posit a shift in the hierarchy of genres involving a downgrading of didactic poetry and a revaluation of lyric. The chapter challenges this view, tracing the origins of the anti-didactic principle in eighteenth-century aesthetics and the concept of ‘pure poetry’, while also showing how Romantic writers make stronger claims than ever for the moral and political utility of literature, and for the role of the author as teacher, legislator, prophet, or healer. Despite its polemics against the ‘French school’ of Dryden and Pope, the Romantic period witnessed its own fashion for ‘moralizing in verse’, and didactic genres such as the georgic and the philosophical poem enjoyed a paradoxical revival. When Romantic writers denounced didactic writing they were not just quarrelling with neoclassicism but responding to tendencies within their own literary culture. Again, there are significant parallels with Germany, where notions of disinterestedness and aesthetic autonomy are complicated by new ideas about ‘aesthetic education’.Less
Traditional accounts of Romanticism posit a shift in the hierarchy of genres involving a downgrading of didactic poetry and a revaluation of lyric. The chapter challenges this view, tracing the origins of the anti-didactic principle in eighteenth-century aesthetics and the concept of ‘pure poetry’, while also showing how Romantic writers make stronger claims than ever for the moral and political utility of literature, and for the role of the author as teacher, legislator, prophet, or healer. Despite its polemics against the ‘French school’ of Dryden and Pope, the Romantic period witnessed its own fashion for ‘moralizing in verse’, and didactic genres such as the georgic and the philosophical poem enjoyed a paradoxical revival. When Romantic writers denounced didactic writing they were not just quarrelling with neoclassicism but responding to tendencies within their own literary culture. Again, there are significant parallels with Germany, where notions of disinterestedness and aesthetic autonomy are complicated by new ideas about ‘aesthetic education’.
Jeffrey Morrison
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159124
- eISBN:
- 9780191673504
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159124.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
There had been a historical focus upon Rome as a political and religious centre for Western culture. Corresponding attention was paid to its aesthetic appeal; the architecture of the city and its ...
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There had been a historical focus upon Rome as a political and religious centre for Western culture. Corresponding attention was paid to its aesthetic appeal; the architecture of the city and its store of art treasures offered the most striking testimony to the city's enduring power and influence. The sudden resurgence of interest and attitude towards Rome may have begun to take place during the period of Johann Joachim Winckelmann's residence in Rome, although it could not wholly be attributed to him. This book is concerned with instances of aesthetic education which took place in Rome. It identifies the reasons for the intense focus of interest on Rome in the 18th century and investigates the specific motivation of members of the Winckelmann circle in visiting Rome.Less
There had been a historical focus upon Rome as a political and religious centre for Western culture. Corresponding attention was paid to its aesthetic appeal; the architecture of the city and its store of art treasures offered the most striking testimony to the city's enduring power and influence. The sudden resurgence of interest and attitude towards Rome may have begun to take place during the period of Johann Joachim Winckelmann's residence in Rome, although it could not wholly be attributed to him. This book is concerned with instances of aesthetic education which took place in Rome. It identifies the reasons for the intense focus of interest on Rome in the 18th century and investigates the specific motivation of members of the Winckelmann circle in visiting Rome.
Dominic McIver Lopes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198827214
- eISBN:
- 9780191866098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198827214.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
A theory of aesthetic value should help us to make sense of how our aesthetic commitments matter to us as members of collectives. Aesthetic policies endogenous to aesthetic practices are directly ...
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A theory of aesthetic value should help us to make sense of how our aesthetic commitments matter to us as members of collectives. Aesthetic policies endogenous to aesthetic practices are directly justified by the network theory. The chapter looks at what aesthetic reasons we have to adopt exogenous aesthetic policies. Many argue that aesthetic practices deserve public support because aesthetic goods are public goods. A case is made for an aesthetic opportunity principle: larger social groups have reason to foster the aesthetic opportunities available to their members. The principle is applied to arts education and to communication technologies subserving aesthetic exchanges. The chapter ends with a discussion of how aesthetic opportunity interacts with—and can potentially counteract—oppressive social structures.Less
A theory of aesthetic value should help us to make sense of how our aesthetic commitments matter to us as members of collectives. Aesthetic policies endogenous to aesthetic practices are directly justified by the network theory. The chapter looks at what aesthetic reasons we have to adopt exogenous aesthetic policies. Many argue that aesthetic practices deserve public support because aesthetic goods are public goods. A case is made for an aesthetic opportunity principle: larger social groups have reason to foster the aesthetic opportunities available to their members. The principle is applied to arts education and to communication technologies subserving aesthetic exchanges. The chapter ends with a discussion of how aesthetic opportunity interacts with—and can potentially counteract—oppressive social structures.
Gordon C.F. Beam
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823234738
- eISBN:
- 9780823240753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234738.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
The chapter by Gordon Bearn begins by considering what Alfred North Whitehead called the “public dangers” inherent in the tendency of educational institutions to preserve the fixed ways and sometimes ...
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The chapter by Gordon Bearn begins by considering what Alfred North Whitehead called the “public dangers” inherent in the tendency of educational institutions to preserve the fixed ways and sometimes the errors of the past, a danger made worse, in Bearn's view, by the “professional” turn of higher education in recent times. This is a problem that cannot be laid exclusively at the door of, say, government or commerce, for among ourselves as educators there is the persistent inclination to enshrine our favorite abstractions and to force them upon our students or readers. A return to “great books” or a reaffirmation of “general education” cannot by themselves constitute any kind of solution to this problem. It is against this background that Bearn admires Cavell's reading of Wittgenstein but worries that the interpretation this yields, with the intermittent stability that it seeks, stands in the way of the aesthetic appreciation that is crucial to the education of grownups. This carries the surprising and disconcerting implication that Cavell's reading may contribute to a suppression of the aesthetic and, hence, frustrate the sensual schooling that Bearn advocates.Less
The chapter by Gordon Bearn begins by considering what Alfred North Whitehead called the “public dangers” inherent in the tendency of educational institutions to preserve the fixed ways and sometimes the errors of the past, a danger made worse, in Bearn's view, by the “professional” turn of higher education in recent times. This is a problem that cannot be laid exclusively at the door of, say, government or commerce, for among ourselves as educators there is the persistent inclination to enshrine our favorite abstractions and to force them upon our students or readers. A return to “great books” or a reaffirmation of “general education” cannot by themselves constitute any kind of solution to this problem. It is against this background that Bearn admires Cavell's reading of Wittgenstein but worries that the interpretation this yields, with the intermittent stability that it seeks, stands in the way of the aesthetic appreciation that is crucial to the education of grownups. This carries the surprising and disconcerting implication that Cavell's reading may contribute to a suppression of the aesthetic and, hence, frustrate the sensual schooling that Bearn advocates.
Gerhard Richter
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231157704
- eISBN:
- 9780231530347
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231157704.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter examines translation as a form of afterness. It first considers Odo Marquard’s interpretation of Martin Heidegger’s aesthetic gestures, and in particular of the latter’s understanding of ...
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This chapter examines translation as a form of afterness. It first considers Odo Marquard’s interpretation of Martin Heidegger’s aesthetic gestures, and in particular of the latter’s understanding of Friedrich Schiller. It explores how Marquard implicitly distances himself from Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe’s argument that Heidegger’s “national aestheticism” is a formation of political involvement that is structured, even haunted, by an abiding attachment to techné and its myths. It also discusses the underlying politics in Heidegger’s concept of translation as Übersetzen, or “carrying across,” and the ways in which it is lodged at the core of Heidegger’s philosophy of language. It reads Heidegger’s ideas on translation in light of his 1936/1937 Freiburg seminar on Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Mankind in order to understand how translation provides Heidegger with a privileged paradigm for conceptualizing the problematic relation between a so-called original and the translation commonly thought of as following it in a straightforward sense.Less
This chapter examines translation as a form of afterness. It first considers Odo Marquard’s interpretation of Martin Heidegger’s aesthetic gestures, and in particular of the latter’s understanding of Friedrich Schiller. It explores how Marquard implicitly distances himself from Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe’s argument that Heidegger’s “national aestheticism” is a formation of political involvement that is structured, even haunted, by an abiding attachment to techné and its myths. It also discusses the underlying politics in Heidegger’s concept of translation as Übersetzen, or “carrying across,” and the ways in which it is lodged at the core of Heidegger’s philosophy of language. It reads Heidegger’s ideas on translation in light of his 1936/1937 Freiburg seminar on Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Mankind in order to understand how translation provides Heidegger with a privileged paradigm for conceptualizing the problematic relation between a so-called original and the translation commonly thought of as following it in a straightforward sense.
Dominic McIver Lopes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198827214
- eISBN:
- 9780191866098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198827214.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Misgivings concerning the value of beauty are widespread. Outside the academy, beauty is often regarded as frivolous, and public support for aesthetic activities is often justified by appeal to their ...
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Misgivings concerning the value of beauty are widespread. Outside the academy, beauty is often regarded as frivolous, and public support for aesthetic activities is often justified by appeal to their economic and cultural spillover effects, rather than their inherent value. Arts scholars who regard perceptions of beauty as contributing to oppressive social formations have come to emphasize non-aesthetic values in art. Meanwhile, philosophy has been stuck for some time with a consensus that aesthetic values are hedonic values—an item’s aesthetic value is its power to produce finally valuable experiences. The trouble is that aesthetic hedonism plays into misgivings about the value of beauty. A plan is laid out for working towards the network theory of aesthetic value as an alternative to aesthetic hedonism.Less
Misgivings concerning the value of beauty are widespread. Outside the academy, beauty is often regarded as frivolous, and public support for aesthetic activities is often justified by appeal to their economic and cultural spillover effects, rather than their inherent value. Arts scholars who regard perceptions of beauty as contributing to oppressive social formations have come to emphasize non-aesthetic values in art. Meanwhile, philosophy has been stuck for some time with a consensus that aesthetic values are hedonic values—an item’s aesthetic value is its power to produce finally valuable experiences. The trouble is that aesthetic hedonism plays into misgivings about the value of beauty. A plan is laid out for working towards the network theory of aesthetic value as an alternative to aesthetic hedonism.
Dominic McIver Lopes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198827214
- eISBN:
- 9780191866098
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198827214.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
One question that leads us into aesthetics is: why does beauty matter? Or, what do aesthetic goods bring to my life, to make it a life that goes well? Or, how does beauty deserve the place we have ...
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One question that leads us into aesthetics is: why does beauty matter? Or, what do aesthetic goods bring to my life, to make it a life that goes well? Or, how does beauty deserve the place we have evidently made for it in our lives? A theory of aesthetic value states what beauty is so as to equip us to answer this question. According to aesthetic hedonism, aesthetic values are properties of items that stand in constitutive relation to pleasure. Contemporary versions of aesthetic hedonism don’t explain what makes aesthetic values aesthetic, but they do explain what makes them normative, stating what makes it the case that aesthetic value facts lend weight to what an agent should do, for the fact that acting yields pleasure is always a reason to act. This book introduces and defends an alternative to aesthetic hedonism. According to the network theory, aesthetic value facts lend weight to its being an achievement for an agent to act. Since agents achieve by acting in coordination with one another, the theory takes seriously the sociality of aesthetic activity. The main argument for the network theory is that it better explains six facts about aesthetic activity than does aesthetic hedonism. The book also discusses the relationship between aesthetic value and pleasure, the point and distinctive character of aesthetic discourse, and the metaphysics of aesthetic value. Two final chapters use the network theory to shed light on how aesthetic value matters to us as individuals and as members of collectives.Less
One question that leads us into aesthetics is: why does beauty matter? Or, what do aesthetic goods bring to my life, to make it a life that goes well? Or, how does beauty deserve the place we have evidently made for it in our lives? A theory of aesthetic value states what beauty is so as to equip us to answer this question. According to aesthetic hedonism, aesthetic values are properties of items that stand in constitutive relation to pleasure. Contemporary versions of aesthetic hedonism don’t explain what makes aesthetic values aesthetic, but they do explain what makes them normative, stating what makes it the case that aesthetic value facts lend weight to what an agent should do, for the fact that acting yields pleasure is always a reason to act. This book introduces and defends an alternative to aesthetic hedonism. According to the network theory, aesthetic value facts lend weight to its being an achievement for an agent to act. Since agents achieve by acting in coordination with one another, the theory takes seriously the sociality of aesthetic activity. The main argument for the network theory is that it better explains six facts about aesthetic activity than does aesthetic hedonism. The book also discusses the relationship between aesthetic value and pleasure, the point and distinctive character of aesthetic discourse, and the metaphysics of aesthetic value. Two final chapters use the network theory to shed light on how aesthetic value matters to us as individuals and as members of collectives.
T.J. Reed
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226205106
- eISBN:
- 9780226205243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226205243.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The Enlightenment uses all forms of publication to convey its message. Since one of these is literature, and since the new aesthetics of Kant and others has declared all art purpose-free, the ...
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The Enlightenment uses all forms of publication to convey its message. Since one of these is literature, and since the new aesthetics of Kant and others has declared all art purpose-free, the question arises where the borderline runs between function and self-sufficiency—whether, at the practical extreme that Schiller treats, art can educate people towards a better politics after the human failings of the French Revolution. The chapter ends by attempting to reconcile the issue between means and ends.Less
The Enlightenment uses all forms of publication to convey its message. Since one of these is literature, and since the new aesthetics of Kant and others has declared all art purpose-free, the question arises where the borderline runs between function and self-sufficiency—whether, at the practical extreme that Schiller treats, art can educate people towards a better politics after the human failings of the French Revolution. The chapter ends by attempting to reconcile the issue between means and ends.
Dominic McIver Lopes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198827214
- eISBN:
- 9780191866098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198827214.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The main argument for the network theory of aesthetic value is that it better explains the facts about aesthetic activity than does its rival, aesthetic hedonism. According to the network theory, an ...
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The main argument for the network theory of aesthetic value is that it better explains the facts about aesthetic activity than does its rival, aesthetic hedonism. According to the network theory, an aesthetic value figures in a fact that lends weight to the proposition that it would be an aesthetic achievement for an agent to act. An aesthetic achievement is an act that succeeds out of aesthetic competence, so an agent has aesthetic reason to act just when they have reason to achieve by so acting. Agents with aesthetic reasons to act have reasons to act in coordination with one another when their coordination raises their chances of achieving. In acting, they rely upon and give rise to social formations. Aesthetic agency is scaffolded by aesthetic practices, which are social practices. A contrast is drawn with structuralist social theory.Less
The main argument for the network theory of aesthetic value is that it better explains the facts about aesthetic activity than does its rival, aesthetic hedonism. According to the network theory, an aesthetic value figures in a fact that lends weight to the proposition that it would be an aesthetic achievement for an agent to act. An aesthetic achievement is an act that succeeds out of aesthetic competence, so an agent has aesthetic reason to act just when they have reason to achieve by so acting. Agents with aesthetic reasons to act have reasons to act in coordination with one another when their coordination raises their chances of achieving. In acting, they rely upon and give rise to social formations. Aesthetic agency is scaffolded by aesthetic practices, which are social practices. A contrast is drawn with structuralist social theory.
Jennifer A. Herdt
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226618487
- eISBN:
- 9780226618517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226618517.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Chapter 4 shows how Kunstreligion, the Religion of Art, came to be seen as a critical resource for the self-formation of mature humanity (Menschheit). Schiller, Goethe, and Wilhelm von Humboldt ...
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Chapter 4 shows how Kunstreligion, the Religion of Art, came to be seen as a critical resource for the self-formation of mature humanity (Menschheit). Schiller, Goethe, and Wilhelm von Humboldt regarded art as having displaced Christianity’s role in ethical formation. Aesthetic education, they believed, would generate harmony among the opposing forces of the human spirit, effectively resist the instrumentalizing reduction of human persons, fit them for stable self-government, and preclude the revolutionary excesses of the French Revolution. The chapter argues that it was Humboldt’s understanding of Bildung, rather than Herder’s, that became institutionalized within the pedagogical and cultural institutions of later 19th-century bourgeois culture (the Bildungsbürgertum). Within this later context, Bildung came to be equated with a classical liberal education, regarded as a badge of bourgeois nobility and taken an excuse for political passivity. In the tumultuous atmosphere surrounding the French Revolution, however, it was not yet evident how easily liberal individualist Bildung could be politically domesticated.Less
Chapter 4 shows how Kunstreligion, the Religion of Art, came to be seen as a critical resource for the self-formation of mature humanity (Menschheit). Schiller, Goethe, and Wilhelm von Humboldt regarded art as having displaced Christianity’s role in ethical formation. Aesthetic education, they believed, would generate harmony among the opposing forces of the human spirit, effectively resist the instrumentalizing reduction of human persons, fit them for stable self-government, and preclude the revolutionary excesses of the French Revolution. The chapter argues that it was Humboldt’s understanding of Bildung, rather than Herder’s, that became institutionalized within the pedagogical and cultural institutions of later 19th-century bourgeois culture (the Bildungsbürgertum). Within this later context, Bildung came to be equated with a classical liberal education, regarded as a badge of bourgeois nobility and taken an excuse for political passivity. In the tumultuous atmosphere surrounding the French Revolution, however, it was not yet evident how easily liberal individualist Bildung could be politically domesticated.
Erika Fischer-Lichte
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199651634
- eISBN:
- 9780191801440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199651634.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Chapter 1, ‘Only with Beauty Man Shall Play. Goethe’s Production of Ion in Weimar (1802)’, proceeds from Goethe’s and Schiller’s responses to the French Revolution. While Goethe hailed the Bildung of ...
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Chapter 1, ‘Only with Beauty Man Shall Play. Goethe’s Production of Ion in Weimar (1802)’, proceeds from Goethe’s and Schiller’s responses to the French Revolution. While Goethe hailed the Bildung of the individual—that is, the development of his potential to the full—as the substitute for a revolution, Schiller believed that it was the aesthetic education of the individual that would finally result in a free state. The production of a Greek tragedy as an autonomous work of art that precluded the formation of empathy in the spectator (contrary to the domestic tragedy) was supposed to offer the spectator the possibility of aesthetic distance and thus enable him to acquire Bildung. To this end, Goethe developed a completely new aesthetics that the majority of spectators rejected—Ion turned out to be a flop.Less
Chapter 1, ‘Only with Beauty Man Shall Play. Goethe’s Production of Ion in Weimar (1802)’, proceeds from Goethe’s and Schiller’s responses to the French Revolution. While Goethe hailed the Bildung of the individual—that is, the development of his potential to the full—as the substitute for a revolution, Schiller believed that it was the aesthetic education of the individual that would finally result in a free state. The production of a Greek tragedy as an autonomous work of art that precluded the formation of empathy in the spectator (contrary to the domestic tragedy) was supposed to offer the spectator the possibility of aesthetic distance and thus enable him to acquire Bildung. To this end, Goethe developed a completely new aesthetics that the majority of spectators rejected—Ion turned out to be a flop.
Peter Cheyne
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- February 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198851806
- eISBN:
- 9780191886485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198851806.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
The ‘aesthetic’ referred to throughout Chapter 3 is not especially the aesthetics of art, but that of everyday experience, the shared world, and of nature. Section 3.1, following up some Coleridgean ...
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The ‘aesthetic’ referred to throughout Chapter 3 is not especially the aesthetics of art, but that of everyday experience, the shared world, and of nature. Section 3.1, following up some Coleridgean notes that relate ‘Ideas’ to ‘thoughts & enjoyments’, performs a Socratic elenchus on unreflective cognitive attitudes in aesthetic states to distinguish value in the experience from prejudice. Section 3.2 then explores Coleridge’s concern with the activity of ideas in everyday aesthetics and the aim of enlightening ‘our feelings’ so they ‘actualize our reason’ ‘with their vital warmth’, relating this to Schiller’s concept of aesthetic education. Section 3.3 introduces the author’s theory of inchoate contemplation that commences in aesthetically informed feelings, in local or national culture, as an initial and perhaps universal, non-intellectualist form of the intuition of ideas. This theory then helps to illuminate a Coleridgean ‘philosophy of life’ where everyday symbols and aesthetic practices reach ‘far higher and far inward’.Less
The ‘aesthetic’ referred to throughout Chapter 3 is not especially the aesthetics of art, but that of everyday experience, the shared world, and of nature. Section 3.1, following up some Coleridgean notes that relate ‘Ideas’ to ‘thoughts & enjoyments’, performs a Socratic elenchus on unreflective cognitive attitudes in aesthetic states to distinguish value in the experience from prejudice. Section 3.2 then explores Coleridge’s concern with the activity of ideas in everyday aesthetics and the aim of enlightening ‘our feelings’ so they ‘actualize our reason’ ‘with their vital warmth’, relating this to Schiller’s concept of aesthetic education. Section 3.3 introduces the author’s theory of inchoate contemplation that commences in aesthetically informed feelings, in local or national culture, as an initial and perhaps universal, non-intellectualist form of the intuition of ideas. This theory then helps to illuminate a Coleridgean ‘philosophy of life’ where everyday symbols and aesthetic practices reach ‘far higher and far inward’.
Jennifer A. Herdt
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226618487
- eISBN:
- 9780226618517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226618517.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter argues that the modern novel in Germany, modeled on Pietist autobiographies and their languages of spiritual introspection, was positioned to take over the formative role played by ...
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This chapter argues that the modern novel in Germany, modeled on Pietist autobiographies and their languages of spiritual introspection, was positioned to take over the formative role played by scripture and devotional literature within Pietist circles. The Bildungsroman was conceived of as “secular scripture.” The chapter shows how Goethe and Schiller’s high hopes for the cultural and political possibilities inherent in the novel faltered in the face of key critical questions: how are audiences seeking entertainment and escape to be drawn instead into the project of aesthetic education? Who is the human author to claim the authority to form humanity? Where are exemplars to be found, when the aspiration is precisely to autonomy and individuality and authenticity? If the most sublime works of art can reach only cultural elites, where is the hope of broad cultural transformation?Less
This chapter argues that the modern novel in Germany, modeled on Pietist autobiographies and their languages of spiritual introspection, was positioned to take over the formative role played by scripture and devotional literature within Pietist circles. The Bildungsroman was conceived of as “secular scripture.” The chapter shows how Goethe and Schiller’s high hopes for the cultural and political possibilities inherent in the novel faltered in the face of key critical questions: how are audiences seeking entertainment and escape to be drawn instead into the project of aesthetic education? Who is the human author to claim the authority to form humanity? Where are exemplars to be found, when the aspiration is precisely to autonomy and individuality and authenticity? If the most sublime works of art can reach only cultural elites, where is the hope of broad cultural transformation?
Wiebke Denecke
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199971848
- eISBN:
- 9780199346134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199971848.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
After exploring satire as a means for writers of younger literary cultures to appropriate and contest elements of the reference culture, this chapter explores a more frontal but less confrontational ...
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After exploring satire as a means for writers of younger literary cultures to appropriate and contest elements of the reference culture, this chapter explores a more frontal but less confrontational way of relating the two: the fascinating dynamic of “synoptic texts,” which juxtapose elements from both for comparison and contrast. It compares Newly Selected Collection of Myriad Leaves (Shinsen Man’yôshû), a poetry anthology that juxtaposes vernacular waka with Sino-Japanese quatrains, and the Parallel Lives (Bioi parálleloi) by the Greek historian, philosopher and essayist Plutarch, which pairs biographies of famous Greek mythical figures, politicians, and military commanders with matching Roman luminaries. The chapter argues that the very act of juxtaposition influenced the representation of both sides, resulting in iconized vignettes of cultural competition and complementarity for the purpose of aesthetic or moral education. Because Plutarch was a Greek living under the Roman Empire, this chapter also thematizes the disjunction between political and cultural capital that the conquest of Greece brought about and that distinguishes the Greco-Roman from the Sino-Japanese constellation.Less
After exploring satire as a means for writers of younger literary cultures to appropriate and contest elements of the reference culture, this chapter explores a more frontal but less confrontational way of relating the two: the fascinating dynamic of “synoptic texts,” which juxtapose elements from both for comparison and contrast. It compares Newly Selected Collection of Myriad Leaves (Shinsen Man’yôshû), a poetry anthology that juxtaposes vernacular waka with Sino-Japanese quatrains, and the Parallel Lives (Bioi parálleloi) by the Greek historian, philosopher and essayist Plutarch, which pairs biographies of famous Greek mythical figures, politicians, and military commanders with matching Roman luminaries. The chapter argues that the very act of juxtaposition influenced the representation of both sides, resulting in iconized vignettes of cultural competition and complementarity for the purpose of aesthetic or moral education. Because Plutarch was a Greek living under the Roman Empire, this chapter also thematizes the disjunction between political and cultural capital that the conquest of Greece brought about and that distinguishes the Greco-Roman from the Sino-Japanese constellation.
