Cultural Paths and Aesthetic Signs: A Critical Hermeneutics of Aesthetic Validity
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Authors
Zuidervaart, Lambert
Issue Date
2003
Type
Article
Language
en
Keywords
Adorno, Theodor W., 1903-1969 , Art , Aesthetics , Gadamer, Hans Georg, 1900-2002 , Habermas, Jürgen , Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 , Language and languages , Hermeneutics , Artistic truth , Validity , Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831
Alternative Title
Abstract
Contemporary philosophical stances toward ‘artistic truth’ derive from Kant’s aesthetics. Whereas philosophers who share Kant’s emphasis on aesthetic validity discount art’s capacity for truth, philosophers who share Hegel’s critique of Kant render artistic truth inaccessible. This essay proposes a critical hermeneutic account of aesthetic validity that supports a non-esoteric notion of artistic truth. Using Gadamer and Adorno to read Kant through Hegelian eyes, I reconstruct the aesthetic dimension from three polarities in modern Western societies. Then I describe aesthetic validity as an horizon of imaginative cogency governing the exploration, presentation and creative interpretation of aesthetic signs. The essay argues that aesthetic processes, so construed, are crucial to cultural pathfinding, and that aesthetic validity-claims in art talk contribute significantly to this pursuit. Aesthetic validity, cultural orientation and art talk constitute the hermeneutical matrix from which questions of artistic truth emerge.
Description
Citation
Zuidervaart, Lambert. "Cultural Paths and Aesthetic Signs: A Critical Hermeneutics of Aesthetic Validity." Philosophy and Social Criticism v. 29 no. 3 (2003): 315-340
Publisher
Sage Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Journal
Philosophy and Social Criticism
Volume
Issue
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
0191-4537