A Holistically Deweyan Feminism

The argument that a holistic analysis of Dewey's work, drawing not only on the major portions subject to extensive commentary (such as Experience and Nature ) but also on his aesthetics, provides fuel for feminist theorizing is sustained by advertence to the standard commentary and also to new work in aesthetic feminism itself. Sleeper, Rorty, Hickman and Russell are cited, and the recent resurgence of interest in developing the intersection between analytic aesthetics and feminist aesthetics is alluded to. It is concluded that the enterprising feminist theorist may suffer from an embarrassment of riches in attempting to approach Dewey but that such an approach is well worth the effort.     

Vertical and Horizontal Transcendence

Transcendence is explored from two perspectives: the traditional concept wherein the origination of the sacred is "out there," and the alternate concept wherein the sacred originates "here." Each is evaluated from the perspectives of aesthetics and hierarchy. Both forms of transcendence are viewed as essential to the full religious life.     

清代词学与易学

易学是清代词学重要的理论源泉,在清代词学理论的构建中,无论是词的创作心态、技法,还是词学审美观、词学诠释学,乃至词学的发展史论等,均受到易学不同程度的影响.易学中的“修辞立其诚”、取“象”、“阴阳刚柔”、“仁者见仁,智者见智”、本色自然、变通发展的理论均渗透到词学领域,滋润灌溉了清代词学.     

The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems,by J. J. Gibson

This paper examines the relationship of Jean-François Lyotard’s aesthetics to phenomenology, especially the works of Mikel Dufrenne and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It argues that this comparison allows a greater understanding of Lyotard’s late aesthetic writings, which can appear gnomic and which have received relatively little critical attention. Lyotard credits Merleau-Ponty with opening the theme of difference in the aesthetic field, yet believes that the phenomenological approach can never adequately account for it. After outlining Lyotard’s early critiques of Dufrenne and Merleau-Ponty, the paper will demonstrate how his late aesthetics can be understood as returning to phenomenological themes but in the form of a reversal. Lyotard’s “lesson of darkness” is that the secret power of art can never be brought into the light of phenomenal appearance, and that artworks do not testify to the birth of perception, but to its death and resurrection.     

Reply to Reynolds

Abstract

How should we read Foucault's claims, in his late work, for the relevance of ‘aesthetic criteria’ to politics? What is Foucault's implicit understanding of the nature of aesthetics and the autonomy of the aesthetic sphere? Would an ethics which gave a place to the aesthetic legitimize a politics of manipulation, brutality and aggression ‐ in short, a ‘fascist’ politics ‐ as some of Foucault's critics argue? In this paper, I examine key accounts of the fascist ‘aestheticization of politics’ ‐ from Walter Benjamin's classic essay, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1936), to Philippe Lacoue‐Labarthe's work on the relation between Heidegger's philosophy and the fascist theme of politics as the plastic art of the state. Through a discussion of Foucault's late work, the paper demonstrates the connection between Foucault's turn to ancient Greek ethical practices and his call for a contemporary renewal of the idea of ethics as an art of living. The aim of the paper is to show in what ways the ethico‐political position which is presented in Foucault's late work, far from contributing to a fascist politics, in fact provides ways of thinking about the relationship between the aesthetic and the political which avoid both mindless radicalism and totalitarian narcissism. In doing so, the key question is, ‘What's aesthetic about Foucault's “aesthetics of existence"?’     

Historical undecidability: The Kantian background to Derrida’s politics1

This paper deals with Derrida’s analysis of Kant’s Critique of Judgment in his essay ‘Economimesis’. I argue that Derrida’s analysis of Kant’s aesthetics can be used to describe the aporia within Kantian politics between rebellion and progressive revolutionary acts. The focus of my argument falls on examining how the recent debate over Derrida’s ethics can be usefully considered from the background of this treatment of Kant. In particular, the analysis Derrida gives of Kant’s aesthetics commits him to a series of conceptual constraints that can be detected in his recent commentaries on ‘forgiveness’ and ‘hospitality’. I suggest that these recent commentaries on political topics also depart from his earlier practice of ethics in ‘Economimesis’ as a ‘witnessing’ of the particular. This departure can be clearly seen once the Kantian background to Derrida’s recent writing is set out.     

Celestial Aesthetics: Over Our Heads and/or in Our Heads

I am the daughter of earth and water,

And the nursling of the sky.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Cloud,” 1820

Abstract Looking at the night sky, we may seem cosmic dwarfs, overwhelmed with a sense of otherness, abyss, lostness. But humans alone enjoy such celestial awe. We can move to a sense of the beholder's celestial ancestry and ongoing relatedness in “our cosmic habitat.” That account joins aesthetics with mathematics, finds dramatic interrelationships gathered under “the anthropic principle,” and considers meteorological aesthetics. The wonder is as much this Homo sapiens with mind enough to search the universe. What is out there is inseparably linked with what is down here. We are at home in the universe. The glory is both over our heads and in our heads.     

Between art tourism and ‘Protestant pilgrimage’: individual journeys to artworks in two churches of Reformed denomination near Bern,Switzerland

ABSTRACT

Can an individual trip to an artwork in a Protestant church, that evokes experiences of transcendence, be understood as a ‘Protestant pilgrimage’? The question is discussed with a historical example from the eighteenth century and a contemporary example from the twenty-first century, both of which refer to the transcendental dimension of (religious) art and raise the question about the interrelationship between art tourism and pilgrimage. Although the motivation for such journeys is often aesthetic and not spiritual, visitors may be deeply touched by the artworks and experience feelings that transcend the mundane present. If these examples are considered as ‘pilgrimages’ (and not only in a merely metaphorical sense), attention must be paid to their ecumenical, potentially heterodox character. For in the Reformed tradition, the importance of the pilgrimage is the journey itself, and not the final destination.