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Philosophy

Rhode Island School of Design

2015

Aesthetics

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Landscapes Of Human Experience, Martin Seel Jan 2015

Landscapes Of Human Experience, Martin Seel

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Landscapes of Human Experience, PDF download. This essay begins with some observations concerning the interaction between nature and art. Relying on these reflections, in the second part experience of landscape will be interpreted as a model for the human stance within the natural as well as the historical world. In the third part some consequences for an ethics and politics of saving the conditions for individual as well as social well-being will be drawn.


Performing Politics, Troy R.E. Paddock Jan 2015

Performing Politics, Troy R.E. Paddock

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Walter Benjamin’s observation that fascism turns politics into aesthetics is, by now, a well-worn idea. This article argues that Benjamin’s critique of politics can apply just as much to the modern democratic politics of the United States. Borrowing from Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, and Carl Schmitt, this article suggests that modern political discourse in the United States does not follow the classical liberal ideal of rational discourse in the marketplace of ideas within the public sphere. Instead, contemporary politics has become spectacle where images and slogans replace thought and debate in a 24/7 news cycle and political infotainment programs. The result …