Rediscovering Aesthetics brings together prominent international voices from art history, philosophy, and artistic practice to discuss the current role of aesthetics within and across their disciplines. Following a period in which theories and histories of art, art criticism, and artistic practice seemed to focus exclusively on political, social, or empirical interpretations of art, aesthetics is being rediscovered both as a vital arena for discussion and a valid interpretive approach outside its traditional philosophical domain. This volume is distinctive, because it provides a selection of significant but divergent positions. The diversity of the views presented here demonstrates that a critical rethinking of aesthetics can be undertaken in a variety of (possibly incompatible) ways. The contributions open a transdisciplinary debate from which a new field of aesthetics may begin to emerge.Contributors include: Claire Bishop, Diarmuid Costello, Paul Crowther, Arthur Danto, Nicholas Davey, Thierry de Duve, James Elkins, Francis Halsall, Michael Ann Holly, Julia Jansen, Michael Kelly, Robert Morris, Tony O'Connor, Peter Osborne, Adrian Piper, David Raskin, Carolee Schneemann, Richard Shiff, Wolfgang Welsch, and Richard Woodfield.

Rediscovering Aesthetics brings together prominent international voices from art history, philosophy, and artistic practice to discuss the current role of aesthetics within and across their disciplines. Following a period in which theories and histories of art, art criticism, and artistic practice seemed to focus exclusively on political, social, or empirical interpretations of art, aesthetics is being rediscovered both as a vital arena for discussion and a valid interpretive approach outside its traditional philosophical domain. This volume is distinctive, because it provides a selection of significant but divergent positions. The diversity of the views presented here demonstrates that a critical rethinking of aesthetics can be undertaken in a variety of (possibly incompatible) ways. The contributions open a transdisciplinary debate from which a new field of aesthetics may begin to emerge.Contributors include: Claire Bishop, Diarmuid Costello, Paul Crowther, Arthur Danto, Nicholas Davey, Thierry de Duve, James Elkins, Francis Halsall, Michael Ann Holly, Julia Jansen, Michael Kelly, Robert Morris, Tony O'Connor, Peter Osborne, Adrian Piper, David Raskin, Carolee Schneemann, Richard Shiff, Wolfgang Welsch, and Richard Woodfield.

AbstractsDe Santis, Daniele, Manca, Danilo: Introduction. The Given: Historical and Hermeneutical Category or Laziness and Perversion of Reason?Filieri, Luigi: Sellars and Kant on Givenness and Intuition.In this paper, I argue that Sellars''s conceptualist reading of Kant, though less radical than more contemporary approaches (e. g., Brandom, McDowell), relies on a controversial account of the relations between the givenness of intuitions, the productive imagination and the power of judgment. I will discuss: 1) how Sellars reconsidered Kant''s account of intuition; and 2) the kind of conceptualism he argues for. I will raise two main claims. First, Sellars''s conceptualist reading of intuition overlooks the role of space and time as givenness conditions. Second, Sellars''s account of the productive imagination disregards the complementary significance of the power of judgment in a priori synthesis, the role of which is to grant synthetic unity. My aim is to reconstruct a consistent dialogue between Sellars and Kant by discussing Sellars''s reading of a priori synthesis and comparing his views to Kant''s original aims.Bredeson, Garrett Zantow: Natorp''s Critique of Appeals to Givenness in Light of the Marburg Renewal of Idealism.For Natorp, the most urgent task for turn-of-the-century philosophy consisted in recovering the meaning of idealism. Instead of simply appealing to given facts, idealists transform givennesses of all sorts into tasks for thinking under the guidance of laws which we ourselves have laid down and for which we ourselves are responsible. In this paper I will try to connect the dots between (a) the broader Marburg project of tethering philosophy to the achievements of modern science and (b) Natorp''s critique of his contemporaries'' appeals to givenness. Understanding this connection is, in my view, crucial for appreciating the sense and grounding of Natorp''s idealism.Palette, Virginie: The Resistance of the Given and its Demythologization in Husserl''s Phenomenology.The objective of this paper is to reconstruct Husserl''s two-pronged approach of sensory givenness. On the one hand, the phenomenological focus on intentional consciousness implies a virulent criticismof the positivistic myth of the sensory given. On the other hand, there is also a positive appeal to sensory givenness in phenomenology, without which phenomenology would not be worthy of its name and would, ultimately, be nothing other than a form of neo-Kantianism. In the context of transcendental genetic phenomenology, Husserl manages to rehabilitate sensory givenness in a reduced, viz. demythologized form. This reconstruction of Husserl''s ambivalent reference to the given can help phenomenology defend itself against some actual trends, which tend to reduce it to phenomenalismor to conceptualism.Manca, Danilo: Spontaneity and Givenness. Natorp, Husserl, and Sellars''s Neo-Kantianism.In this article, I propose a comparison between Natorp, Husserl, and Sellars that has a twofold aim. First, I ask to what extent Sellars''s perspective can be considered to be Neo-Kantian. Second, I demonstrate that the point of divergence among these three thinkers does not have to do with the role they ascribe to givenness in knowledge, but with the way they conceive the activity of thinking. Focusing on Husserl''s reading of Natorp''s theses concerning the subjective and objective ground of knowledge, I show that both Natorp and Husserl agree with Sellars on the limits of a positivistic and empiricist perspective that relies on what is given in perception for the justification of one''s epistemic beliefs. On the other hand, the differences between the three thinkers emerge as soon as we consider how they attempt to integrate the spontaneity of thinking into the sphere of intuition from a renewed Kantian perspective.De Santis, Daniele: Thought, Being, and the Given in Hans Vaihinger''s Die Philosophie des Als Ob.

Julia Jansen, geboren 1991 in Hamburg, ist eine deutsche Science-Fiction-Autorin, die sich intensiv mit den Auswirkungen von Technologie auf das menschliche Leben auseinandersetzt. Ihre Werke erforschen eine Zukunft, in der die Grenzen zwischen Mensch und Maschine immer mehr verschwimmen und die technologische Lenkung das tägliche Leben bestimmt. Bekannt wurde sie durch ihre außergewöhnliche Fähigkeit, gesellschaftskritische Themen in fesselnde Geschichten zu verpacken, die sowohl warnend als auch visionär sind.

Critical Communities and Aesthetic Practices brings together eminent international philosophers to discuss the inter-dependence of critical communities and aesthetic practices. Their contributions share a hermeneutical commitment to dialogue, both as a model for critique and as a generator of community. Two conclusions emerge: The first is that one’s relationships with others will always be central in determining the social, political, and artistic forms that philosophical self-reflection will take. The second is that our practices of aesthetic judgment are bound up with our efforts as philosophers to adapt ourselves and our objects of interest to the inescapably historical and indeterminate conditions of experience.The papers collected here address the issue that critical communities and aesthetic practices are never politically neutral and can never be abstracted from their particular contexts. It is for this reason that the contributors investigate the politics, not of laws, parties or state constitutions, but of open, indefinably critical communities such as audiences, peers and friends.Critical Communities and Aesthetic Practices is distinctive in providing a current selection of prominent positions, written for this volume. Together, these comprise a pluralist, un-homogenized collection that brings into focus contemporary debates on critical and aesthetic practices.

Rediscovering Aesthetics brings together prominent international voices from art history, philosophy, and artistic practice to discuss the current role of aesthetics within and across their disciplines. Following a period in which theories and histories of art, art criticism, and artistic practice seemed to focus exclusively on political, social, or empirical interpretations of art, aesthetics is being rediscovered both as a vital arena for discussion and a valid interpretive approach outside its traditional philosophical domain. This volume is distinctive, because it provides a selection of significant but divergent positions. The diversity of the views presented here demonstrates that a critical rethinking of aesthetics can be undertaken in a variety of (possibly incompatible) ways. The contributions open a transdisciplinary debate from which a new field of aesthetics may begin to emerge.Contributors include: Claire Bishop, Diarmuid Costello, Paul Crowther, Arthur Danto, Nicholas Davey, Thierry de Duve, James Elkins, Francis Halsall, Michael Ann Holly, Julia Jansen, Michael Kelly, Robert Morris, Tony O'Connor, Peter Osborne, Adrian Piper, David Raskin, Carolee Schneemann, Richard Shiff, Wolfgang Welsch, and Richard Woodfield.

Rediscovering Aesthetics brings together prominent international voices from art history, philosophy, and artistic practice to discuss the current role of aesthetics within and across their disciplines. Following a period in which theories and histories of art, art criticism, and artistic practice seemed to focus exclusively on political, social, or empirical interpretations of art, aesthetics is being rediscovered both as a vital arena for discussion and a valid interpretive approach outside its traditional philosophical domain. This volume is distinctive, because it provides a selection of significant but divergent positions. The diversity of the views presented here demonstrates that a critical rethinking of aesthetics can be undertaken in a variety of (possibly incompatible) ways. The contributions open a transdisciplinary debate from which a new field of aesthetics may begin to emerge.Contributors include: Claire Bishop, Diarmuid Costello, Paul Crowther, Arthur Danto, Nicholas Davey, Thierry de Duve, James Elkins, Francis Halsall, Michael Ann Holly, Julia Jansen, Michael Kelly, Robert Morris, Tony O'Connor, Peter Osborne, Adrian Piper, David Raskin, Carolee Schneemann, Richard Shiff, Wolfgang Welsch, and Richard Woodfield.

AbstractsDe Santis, Daniele, Manca, Danilo: Introduction. The Given: Historical and Hermeneutical Category or Laziness and Perversion of Reason?Filieri, Luigi: Sellars and Kant on Givenness and Intuition.In this paper, I argue that Sellars''s conceptualist reading of Kant, though less radical than more contemporary approaches (e. g., Brandom, McDowell), relies on a controversial account of the relations between the givenness of intuitions, the productive imagination and the power of judgment. I will discuss: 1) how Sellars reconsidered Kant''s account of intuition; and 2) the kind of conceptualism he argues for. I will raise two main claims. First, Sellars''s conceptualist reading of intuition overlooks the role of space and time as givenness conditions. Second, Sellars''s account of the productive imagination disregards the complementary significance of the power of judgment in a priori synthesis, the role of which is to grant synthetic unity. My aim is to reconstruct a consistent dialogue between Sellars and Kant by discussing Sellars''s reading of a priori synthesis and comparing his views to Kant''s original aims.Bredeson, Garrett Zantow: Natorp''s Critique of Appeals to Givenness in Light of the Marburg Renewal of Idealism.For Natorp, the most urgent task for turn-of-the-century philosophy consisted in recovering the meaning of idealism. Instead of simply appealing to given facts, idealists transform givennesses of all sorts into tasks for thinking under the guidance of laws which we ourselves have laid down and for which we ourselves are responsible. In this paper I will try to connect the dots between (a) the broader Marburg project of tethering philosophy to the achievements of modern science and (b) Natorp''s critique of his contemporaries'' appeals to givenness. Understanding this connection is, in my view, crucial for appreciating the sense and grounding of Natorp''s idealism.Palette, Virginie: The Resistance of the Given and its Demythologization in Husserl''s Phenomenology.The objective of this paper is to reconstruct Husserl''s two-pronged approach of sensory givenness. On the one hand, the phenomenological focus on intentional consciousness implies a virulent criticismof the positivistic myth of the sensory given. On the other hand, there is also a positive appeal to sensory givenness in phenomenology, without which phenomenology would not be worthy of its name and would, ultimately, be nothing other than a form of neo-Kantianism. In the context of transcendental genetic phenomenology, Husserl manages to rehabilitate sensory givenness in a reduced, viz. demythologized form. This reconstruction of Husserl''s ambivalent reference to the given can help phenomenology defend itself against some actual trends, which tend to reduce it to phenomenalismor to conceptualism.Manca, Danilo: Spontaneity and Givenness. Natorp, Husserl, and Sellars''s Neo-Kantianism.In this article, I propose a comparison between Natorp, Husserl, and Sellars that has a twofold aim. First, I ask to what extent Sellars''s perspective can be considered to be Neo-Kantian. Second, I demonstrate that the point of divergence among these three thinkers does not have to do with the role they ascribe to givenness in knowledge, but with the way they conceive the activity of thinking. Focusing on Husserl''s reading of Natorp''s theses concerning the subjective and objective ground of knowledge, I show that both Natorp and Husserl agree with Sellars on the limits of a positivistic and empiricist perspective that relies on what is given in perception for the justification of one''s epistemic beliefs. On the other hand, the differences between the three thinkers emerge as soon as we consider how they attempt to integrate the spontaneity of thinking into the sphere of intuition from a renewed Kantian perspective.De Santis, Daniele: Thought, Being, and the Given in Hans Vaihinger''s Die Philosophie des Als Ob.

Julia Jansen, geboren 1991 in Hamburg, ist eine deutsche Science-Fiction-Autorin, die sich intensiv mit den Auswirkungen von Technologie auf das menschliche Leben auseinandersetzt. Ihre Werke erforschen eine Zukunft, in der die Grenzen zwischen Mensch und Maschine immer mehr verschwimmen und die technologische Lenkung das tägliche Leben bestimmt. Bekannt wurde sie durch ihre außergewöhnliche Fähigkeit, gesellschaftskritische Themen in fesselnde Geschichten zu verpacken, die sowohl warnend als auch visionär sind.

Critical Communities and Aesthetic Practices brings together eminent international philosophers to discuss the inter-dependence of critical communities and aesthetic practices. Their contributions share a hermeneutical commitment to dialogue, both as a model for critique and as a generator of community. Two conclusions emerge: The first is that one’s relationships with others will always be central in determining the social, political, and artistic forms that philosophical self-reflection will take. The second is that our practices of aesthetic judgment are bound up with our efforts as philosophers to adapt ourselves and our objects of interest to the inescapably historical and indeterminate conditions of experience.The papers collected here address the issue that critical communities and aesthetic practices are never politically neutral and can never be abstracted from their particular contexts. It is for this reason that the contributors investigate the politics, not of laws, parties or state constitutions, but of open, indefinably critical communities such as audiences, peers and friends.Critical Communities and Aesthetic Practices is distinctive in providing a current selection of prominent positions, written for this volume. Together, these comprise a pluralist, un-homogenized collection that brings into focus contemporary debates on critical and aesthetic practices.