Aesthetics

This volume of lectures on aesthetics, given by Adorno in the winter semester of 1958–9, formed the foundation for his later Aesthetic Theory, widely regarded as one of his greatest works. 

The lectures cover a wide range of topics, from an intense analysis of the work of Georg Lukács to a sustained reflection on the theory of aesthetic experience, from an examination of works by Plato, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Benjamin, to a discussion of the latest experiments of John Cage, attesting to the virtuosity and breadth of Adorno's engagement.  All the while, Adorno remains deeply connected to his surrounding context, offering us a window onto the artistic, intellectual and political confrontations that shaped life in post-war Germany. 

This volume will appeal to a broad range of students and scholars in the humanities and social sciences, as well as anyone interested in the development of critical theory.

Editor's Foreword

LECTURE 1
The situation
The possibility of philosophical aesthetics today
The connection between philosophy and aesthetics in Kant
Hegel's definition of beauty
Aesthetic objectivity
A critique of 'aesthetics from above'
On the method
The problem of aesthetic relativity
The objectivity of aesthetic judgement
Aesthetic logic
The irrationality of art
The work of art as an expression of naïveté
Basic research in the field of aesthetics

LECTURE 2
Not a set of instructions
The individualist prejudice
Talent
Resistance to aesthetics
The poles of aesthetic insight: (a) Theoretical reflection; (b) The experience of artistic practice
Against cultivatedness
The riddle character
A justification of the philosophy of art
'Aesthetics' is equivocal
Natural beauty and artistic beauty
Hegel's turn away from natural beauty
Unresolved aspect to natural beauty

LECTURE 3
The elusiveness of natural beauty
The model character of natural beauty
Aura
The experiences of something objective
'Mood'
The mediation of natural beauty and artistic beauty
The historicity of natural beauty
The sublime in Kant
Aesthetic experience is dialectical in itself
'Disinterested pleasure'

LECTURE 4
Special sphere of aesthetic semblance
The taboo on desire
Sublimation
Dissonance
'Spring's command, sweet need'
Mimesis
Imitation
Transition

LECTURE 5
The separation of art from the real world
Play and semblance
'The world once again'
Art as 'unfolding of truth'
The negation of the reality principle
Expression of suffering
The participation of art in the process of controlling nature
Technique
Progress

LECTURE 6
Does art merely express what has been destroyed?
Restoring the body
Start from the most advanced art
The expressive ideal of expressionism
Principium stilisationis
Construction
The dialectic of expression and construction

LECTURE 7
Nature is historical
Construction and form
A critique of the creator role
The aversion to expression
The reduction of the individual
Falling silent after Auschwitz
The crisis of meaning
The limits of construction

LECTURE 8
The crisis of meaning (contd.)
Giving a voice to mutilated nature
Expression of alienation
Defamiliarization
Consistency of construction
Aleatory music
The problem of characters

LECTURE 9
The Platonic doctrine of beauty
Introduction to an interpretation of the Phaedrus
Enthousiasmos
Beauty as a form of madness
Being seized
Pain as a constituent of the experience of beauty
Not a definition
Idea
The subjectivity of beauty
The imitation of the idea of beauty
The aspect of danger in beauty

LECTURE 10
Interpretation of the Phaedrus, contd.
The paradox of beauty
The image of beauty
Affinity with death
Elevating oneself above the contingent world Kant's theory of the sublime
The sensual and the spiritual in art
Force field

LECTURE 11
Ontology and dialectic in Plato
The relationship between beauty and art
The aspect of ugliness
The aspect of sensual pleasure
Aesthetic experience
'Throw away in order to gain!'
The meaning of the whole

LECTURE 12
Recapitulation
Enjoyment of art
The inhabitant
Fetishism
Aesthetic enjoyment
The suspension of the principium individuationis
Understanding works of art

LECTURE 13
Reflective co-enactment
Aesthetic stupidity
Translation, commentary, critique
The spiritualization of art
Constructivism
The dialectic of sensual and spiritual aspects in the work of art

LECTURE 14
Spiritual content
The structural context
Force field
The allergy to sensual pleasure
Aesthetics without beauty

LECTURE 15
Correcting the definition of the work of art
Alienation
Reference to the object in visual art
'Abstract' art
Form as sedimented content
Loss of tension
Theoretical preconditions of artistic experience

LECTURE 16
Beauty and truth
Naturalism
Truth of expression
Coherence
Necessity
The idea of beauty as something internally in motion
Homeostasis
The mediated truth

LECTURE 17
Subjectivism and objectivism in aesthetics
Hegel's critique of taste
The physiognomy of the aesthete
Goût quamd même
Accumulated experience
Fashion

LECTURE 18
A critique of aesthetic subjectivism
A critique of psychological aesthetics
Methodology
The immediacy of subjective reactions is mediated
The consumption of prestige
The emotional relationship with art

LECTURE 19
Recapitulation
'The Tired Businessman's Show'
Conceptless synthesis
The cognition of art
Defensive reactions to modern art

LECTURE 20
Recapitulation
The rancour of those left behind towards new art
Semi-literacy
The alienation of modern art from consumption is itself social
Lukács's pseudo-realism
The concept of ideology
Kant's subjectivism
A critique of the theory of aesthetic experience
The ambiguity of the work of art

LECTURE 21
Recovery of the truth
The idea lies in the totality of aspects
'... being completely filled with the matter'
Experience
The psychology of the artist
Empathy
The work of art as objectified spirit
Artistic production

Adorno's Notes for the Lectures

Editor's Notes

Index

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