The Dialectics of Aesthetic Agency: Revaluating German Aesthetics from Kant to Adorno

223 Pages·2013·1.66 MB·English

by  Ayon Maharaj

Th e Dialectics of Aesthetic Agency
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Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy
Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy presents cutting-edge scholarship in all the
major areas of research and study. Th e wholly original arguments, perspectives,
and research fi ndings in titles in this series make it an important and stimulating
resource for students and academics from a range of disciplines across the
humanities and social sciences.
Available in the series:
Aesthetic and Artistic Autonomy , edited by Owen Hulatt
Art, Language and Figure in Merleau-Ponty , Rajiv Kaushik
Art, Myth and Society in Hegel’s Aesthetics , David James
Th e Challenge of Relativism , Patrick J. J. Phillips
Th e Cognitive Value of Philosophical Fiction , Jukka Mikkonen
Th e Demands of Taste in Kant’s Aesthetics , Brent Kalar
Descartes and the Metaphysics of Human Nature , edited by Justin Skirry
Dialectic of Romanticism , Peter Murphy and David Roberts
Kant: Th e Art of Judgment in Aesthetic Education , Pradeep Dhillon
Kant’s Aesthetic Th eory , David Berger
Kant’s Concept of Genius , Paul W. Bruno
Kant’s Transcendental Arguments , Scott Stapleford
Kierkegaard, Metaphysics and Political Th eory , Alison Assiter
Metaphysics and the End of Philosophy , H.O. Mounce
Th e Philosophy of Art: Th e Question of Defi nition , Tiziana Andina
Popper’s Th eory of Science , Carlos Garcia
Th e Science, Politics, and Ontology of Life-Philosophy , edited by Scott M. Campbell
and Paul W. Bruno
Virtue Epistemology , Stephen Napier
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Th e Dialectics of Aesthetic Agency
Revaluating German Aesthetics from
Kant to Adorno
Ayon Maharaj
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY

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Bloomsbury Academic
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First published 2013
© Ayon Maharaj, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
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permission in writing from the publishers.
Ayon Maharaj has asserted his/her right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or
refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-4084-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
To come
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Printed and bound in Great Britain
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Art leads beyond and yet not beyond.
Th eodor Adorno, Aesthetic Th eory (351)
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Contents
Preface x
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations of Primary Texts xiii
Introduction: Th e Crisis of Art in Modernity 1
1 Aporias of Aesthetic Pleasure in Kant ’ s
“ Analytic of the Beautiful ” 17
I Interpreting the third Critique : A reconstructive or a
structural approach? 17
II Against the reconstructive bias 19
III Th e phenomenology of aesthetic pleasure: Interpretive
possibilities 23
IV Valences of aesthetic disinterestedness 25
V Th e problem of the universal voice 27
VI S ensus communis : Regulative or constitutive? 35
VII On the centrality of Kant ’ s “ lesser question ” 42
2 Th e “ Great Gulf ” of the Th ird Critique : Kant ’ s Ambivalence About
the Role of Aesthetic Pleasure in Moral Life 45
I Kant ’ s aesthetics in the broader context of the third Critique 45
II Th e Fact of Reason in the second C ritique 47
III Th e aporia of nature ’ s purposiveness in the third C ritique 51
IV Can aesthetic pleasure bridge the “ great gulf ” between
nature and freedom? 57
V Kant ’ s legacy in Schiller ’ s Letters , the “ System-Program, ”
and beyond 68
3 Kant Romanticized: Aesthetic Intuition as Redemption in
Schelling ’ s S ystem of Transcendental Idealism 73
I Th e Kantian foundations of Schelling ’ s Romantic
aesthetics 73
II Intellectual intuition in Kant and Fichte 75
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viii Contents
III Th e Ichschrift : Early Schelling ’ s speculative
critique of Kant 78
IV Th e aesthetics of Schelling ’ s S ystem : Art as the
“ organ ” of philosophy 82
V Anxieties of Romanticism 89
4 Hegel c ontra Schlegel: On the Aporetic Epistemology
of Romantic Irony 93
I Permanent parabasis: Schlegel ’ s call for a radicalized
skepticism 93
II Schlegel ’ s epistemology of irony 96
III Th e origins of Schlegel ’ s theory of irony in
Kant and Fichte 99
IV Recuperating Hegel ’ s metacritique of Schlegelian irony 103
V Irony and/as dialectics 109
VI Schlegel ’ s vision of a “ new mythology ” 111
5 Art ’ s “ Aft er ” and the Dialectical Possibilities of Irony in Hegel ’ s
Lectures on Aesthetics 115
I From the end of art to the “ aft er of art ” 115
II Th e synchronic and diachronic dimensions
of Hegel ’ s aesthetics 117
III Hegel ’ s three-stage “ Historical Deduction of the True
Concept of Art ” 121
IV Stage one: Kantian aporias and the crisis
of modernity 123
V Stage two: Th e quest for aesthetic unity in
Schiller and Schelling 128
VI Stage three: Th e dynamics of irony in Schlegel,
Novalis, and Solger 132
VII From Hegel to Kierkegaard: Toward a dialectics of
objective humor 139
6 Th e Idealist Legacy: Adorno ’ s Dialectical Retrieval of Aesthetic
Agency in A esthetic Th eory 143
I Adorno between Kant and Hegel 143
II Th e “ aporia of aesthetic objectivity ” in Kant ’ s aesthetics 145
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Contents ix
III Artwork as force-fi eld: Adorno ’ s Kierkegaardian
reading of Hegel 148
IV E rsch ü tterung : Adorno ’ s negative dialectics of
aesthetic experience 153
V Rethinking aesthetic praxis 160
Epilogue: Art as Force: From Critical Suspicion to
Dialectical Immanence 161
Notes 167
Bibliography 197
Index 207
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