The German Aesthetic Tradition

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Feb 22, Glenn Russell rated it it was amazing. In the mid 18th century, German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten coined the term "aesthetics" to designate a theory of sensibility that produces a certain kind of knowledge, that is, knowledge derived from our sensual perceptions. He had an uphill battle staking out this claim since much of the Western philosophical tradition going back to Plato and right up to Rene Descartes discounted sense perception as a legitimate mode of knowing.

Also, the long tradition of Christianity, especi In the mid 18th century, German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten coined the term "aesthetics" to designate a theory of sensibility that produces a certain kind of knowledge, that is, knowledge derived from our sensual perceptions.

Also, the long tradition of Christianity, especially the Protestant Pietism of his day in Germany, frowned on the pleasures we derive from our senses. But Baumgarten forged ahead with a philosophy embracing sense perception as a legitimate way of knowing. He termed such knowing "confused cognition" - confused in the sense that our knowing is not entirely rational for example, our working problems in logic and mathematics but combines sense perception with the rational our judging the full moon to be circular. And extending his philosophy of legitimizing our sensual perception a bit further, art consequently receives a kind of dignity.

Indeed, for Baumgarten, as successful aestheticians, we will combine attention to and love for the sensory world with our faculty of rational cognition.

And our repeated encounters with the beauty of nature and art will help us become more well-balanced human beings. The author goes on to address the development of aesthetics — that branch of philosophy dealing with questions of beauty, the sublime and the philosophy of art — by devoting thirteen sections to other major German philosophers: Also, along the way, Hammermeister makes references to other influential thinkers such as Fichte, Holderlin and Marcuse. This is a one-of-a-kind work, the only published book specifically addressing the tradition of German aesthetics.

And since these German thinkers are at the very core of aesthetic theory in the West, a reader will not find a better book providing a solid foundation on the topic. The Apollonian represents ethical conduct and an aesthetic attitude determined by reason, cognition and philosophic contemplation.

The German Aesthetic Tradition

The Dionysian, in stark contrast, represents intoxication, frenzy and chaos. And, standing before a classical Greek sculpture at a museum, we contemplate its serene beauty, the harmonious integration of all the parts and feel a sense of tranquility and order -- we participate in the world of Apollo.

And, finally, in a number of important ways, Nietzsche underscores the romantic view running through the German aesthetic tradition: If anybody has any doubts about the seriousness of the subject of art and aesthetics, please take a look at this Youtube video — Degenerate Art — Nazi Art vs. View all 17 comments.

Nov 09, Maaike rated it it was ok Shelves: I get it, you don't like Schopenhauer. Jul 10, Josh Young rated it really liked it. Lots of jargon but fairly short and detailed considering.

If you're interested in study of beauty from that country that termed the word "aesthetic" then this is a good start. Christoffer Lundkvist rated it liked it Jan 09, Em rated it liked it May 02, Jan Bant rated it really liked it Apr 22, Robert rated it liked it Aug 16, Nicolas rated it really liked it Jan 27, Darryn rated it really liked it Aug 17, Wonjun rated it really liked it Oct 08, Wouter rated it really liked it Nov 09, Tobias rated it really liked it Apr 05, Anouk rated it liked it Oct 29, Arlene rated it liked it Feb 24, Tamara Rose rated it really liked it May 21, Phillip rated it liked it Apr 21, Patrick Drexler rated it it was amazing Jan 04, Cactuszac rated it really liked it May 30, Cathie rated it liked it Mar 07, Michael rated it it was ok Sep 14, A bold and difficult project, Hammermeister traces the complex and oftentimes abstruse contours of German aesthetic philosophy from its inception with Baumgarten in the eighteenth century through Adorno in the twentieth.

In the process, he not only provides us with an excellent historical-philosophical account of the development of German aesthetic philosophy, he also implicitly argues for the relevance of aesthetics as a way not only of comprehending art, but of understanding the cohesive links between art, society, culture and philosophy. The German aesthetic tradition, as Hammermeister refers to it, was a prolonged intellectual argumentation with classical conceptions of art and beauty inherited from classical Greek thought during the eighteenth century.

Classical aesthetics was dominated by two opposing conceptions of art and its function. For Plato, art mirrored the outside world mimesis and the judgement of good works of art was based on how well this mirroring of the objective world was carried out. Aristotle's idea was that art served a purgatory function katharsis , cleansing the emotions of the individual through the identification of the observer with the work of art. All of the thinkers in the German tradition wrestle with this dual conception of art in some form privileging one over the other or, more often than not, combining them and extending their explanatory reach.

But as in any tradition, they also struggle with the ideas and philosophies of previous thinkers within the tradition itself making Hammermeister's task more complex, one that he handles with adroitness and precision.

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The book's overarching argument and structure is triadic. Hammermeister sees the eighteenth century through German Idealism and Romanticism as [End Page ] articulating a set of different paradigms for interpreting art. These are subsequently attacked in post-Hegelian philosophy and are then revived in different ways in the twentieth century as a reaction to Nietzsche's aestheticization of philosophy.

Two paradigms emerge as central for the subsequent unfolding of the tradition.

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First, there is Immanuel Kant's conception of art as wholly separate from epistemology and from morality. For Kant, the work of art is centered in the experience of the subject and, in terms of form, exists outside its social context. This Hammermeister calls the "first strong paradigm of aesthetics" p. Next, there is the position of Friedrich Schiller who sees a connection between the work of art with culture, thought and morality.

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