Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics and the Reconstruction of Art

This collection of essays explores the rise of aesthetics as a response to the reshaping of the arts in modern society.

Paul Mattick, Jr (Edited by)

9780521066839, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 June 2008

268 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

This collection of essays explores the rise of aesthetics as a response to, and as a part of, the reshaping of the arts in modern society. The theories of art developed under the name of 'aesthetics' in the eighteenth century have traditionally been understood as contributions to a field of study in existence since the time of Plato. If art is a practice to be found in all human societies, then the philosophy of art is the search for universal features of that practice, which can be stated in definitions of art and beauty. However, art as we know it - the system of 'fine arts' - is largely peculiar to modern society. Aesthetics, far from being a perennial discipline, emerged in an effort both to understand and to shape this new social practice. These essays share the conviction that aesthetic ideas can be fully understood when seen not only in relation to intellectual and social contexts, but as themselves constructed in history.

Introduction Paul Mattick, Jr
1. Disinterestedness and denial of the particular: Locke, Adam Smith, and the subject of aesthetics Elizabeth A. Bohls
2. The beginnings of 'aesthetics' and the Leibnizian conception of sensation Jeffrey Barnouw
3. Of the scandal of taste: social privilege as nature in the aesthetic theories of Hume and Kant Richard Shusterman
4. Why did Kant call taste a 'common sense'? David Summers
5. Art and money Paul Mattick, Jr
6. 'Art' as a weapon in cultural politics: rereading Schiller's Aesthetic Letters Martha Woodmansee
7. Thinking about genius in the eighteenth century John Hope Mason
8. Creation, aesthetics, market: origins of the modern concept of art Annie Becq.

Subject Areas: History of art & design styles: c 1600 to c 1800 [ACQ]