A01=Jean-Marie Schaeffer
Aesthetic Theory
Aestheticism
Aesthetics
Age of Enlightenment
Antinomy
Archetype
Art for art's sake
Arthur Schopenhauer
Author_Jean-Marie Schaeffer
Avant-garde
Category=QDTN
Classicism
Concept
Consciousness
Critical philosophy
Culture industry
Determination
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
Explanatory model
Figurative art
Fine art
First principle
Genre
Historicism
Historicity
Historicization
Idealism
Idealization
Imagination
Intellectualization
Literariness
Literature
Martin Heidegger
Modern art
Modernity
Neoplatonism
Novalis
Objective idealism
Ontic
Ontology
Phenomenon
Philosopher
Philosophy
Poetry
Politique
Positivism
Postmodernism
Potentiality and actuality
Pre-established harmony
Precognition
Realism (arts)
Reality
Reason
Relativism
Religion
Romanticism
Scholasticism
Scientism
Secularization
Solipsism
Spinozism
Subjectivism
The Soul of the World
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Theodicy
Theory
Theory of art
Theory of Forms
Thought
Transcendental idealism
Truism
Volksgeist
Work of art
Product details
- ISBN 9780691144368
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 26 Jul 2009
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
This is a sweeping and provocative work of aesthetic theory: a trenchant critique of the philosophy of art as it developed from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, combined with a carefully reasoned plea for a new and more flexible approach to art. Jean-Marie Schaeffer, one of France's leading aestheticians, explores the writings of Kant, Schlegel, Novalis, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Heidegger to show that these diverse thinkers shared a common approach to art, which he calls the "speculative theory." According to this theory, art offers a special kind of intuitive, quasi-mystical knowledge, radically different from the rational knowledge acquired by science. This view encouraged theorists to consider artistic geniuses the high-priests of humanity, creators of works that reveal the invisible essence of the world. Philosophers came to regard inexpressibility as the aim of art, refused to consider second-tier creations genuine art, and helped to create conditions in which the genius was expected to shock, puzzle, and mystify the public.
Schaeffer shows that this speculative theory helped give birth to romanticism, modernism, and the avant-garde, and paved the way for an unfortunate divorce between art and enjoyment, between "high art" and popular art, and between artists and their public. Rejecting the speculative approach, Schaeffer concludes by defending a more tolerant theory of art that gives pleasure its due, includes popular art, tolerates less successful works, and accounts for personal tastes. "[A] remarkable work...[Schaeffer's] writing is governed by ...the ideals of clarity and consequence, the ideas of logic, truth, and evidence...Schaeffer is so precise and unrelenting a philosophical critic that one wonders how some of the philosophies he anatomizes here can possibly survive the operation."--From the foreword by Arthur C. Danto
Jean-Marie Schaeffer is Research Director at the Centre National de la recherche scientifique in Paris. He is also a member of the Centre de recherches sur les arts et la langage (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris). His books include "Les Celibataires de l'Art: Pour une esthetique sans mythes" and "Qu'est-ce qu'un genre litteraire?" Arthur C. Danto is Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University.
