Embodied meaning and art as sense-making: a critique of Beiser's interpretation of the “End of Art Thesis”

Giladi, Paul

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to challenge Fred Beiser's interpretation of Hegel's meta-aesthetical position on the future of art. According to Beiser, Hegel's comments about the “pastness” of art commit Hegel to viewing postromantic art as merely a form of individual self-expression. I both defend and extend to another territory, Robert Pippin's interpretation of Hegel as a proto-modernist, where such modernism involves (1) his rejection of both classicism and Kantian aesthetics and (2) his espousal of what one may call reflective aesthetics. By “reflective aesthetics,” I mean an aesthetic framework which sees art as a form of enquiry, one whose aim is to not merely excite the imagination but to principally focus attention on social and cultural norms. The meta-aesthetical consequences of reflective aesthetics and their Hegelian heritage have both an interpretive and philosophic value: according to me, Beiser's reading of Hegel is challenged, and my interpretation of how Hegel envisaged the future of art offers a new and engaging way of understanding one of the most notorious claims in the philosophy of art, namely that art has ended.

Citation

Giladi, P. (2016). Embodied meaning and art as sense-making: a critique of Beiser's interpretation of the “End of Art Thesis”. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 8(1), Article 29934. https://doi.org/10.3402/jac.v8.29934

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 2, 2016
• Publication Date: Apr 2, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 9, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 9, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Aesthetics and Culture
• Electronic ISSN: 2000-4214
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 29934
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3402/jac.v8.29934
• Keywords: philosophy of art; Hegel; history of art; modernism; End of Art
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/jac.v8.29934