Not Yet. The Philosophical Significance of Aesthetics

Authors

  • Christoph Menke

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v21i39.3002

Keywords:

The aesthetic, the poetic, Aristotle, Hegel, aesthetics within philosophy

Abstract

The paper asks for the preconditions and the consequences of the emergence of aesthetics in and for philosophy. The question is: what does it mean for philosophy to engage the question of the aesthetic? My answer will be: it means nothing less than putting philosophy in question. Or, more precisely: by engaging the question of the aesthetic, philosophy puts itself in question. In order to show this, I will refer to a brief passage in the Phenomenology of the Spirit and then attempt to turn it against what I take it to be Hegel’s own intention. The paper attempts to sketch this argument in three brisk moves by (1) distinguishing a philosophy of the “poetic” from a philosophy of the “aesthetic”; (2) describing the aesthetic as “regressive” and “(self-)reflexive”; and (3) sketching the paradoxical place of aesthetics within philosophy.

 

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Published

2010-08-15

How to Cite

Menke, C. (2010). Not Yet. The Philosophical Significance of Aesthetics. The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 21(39). https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v21i39.3002

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Section

Articles