Diotima's children: german aesthetic rationalism from leibniz to lessing

Diotima's Children is the first comprehensive re-examination of the rationalist tradition of aesthetics as it prevailed in Germany in the late seventeenthand early eighteenth centuries. This tradition is of the greatest historicalimportance because it gave birth to modern aesthetics, art criticism, and arthistory. Diotima's Children is a re-examination of the rationalist tradition of aesthetics which prevailed in Germany in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century. It is partly an historical survey of the central figures and themes of this tradition But it is also a philosophical defense of some of its leading ideas, viz., that beauty plays an integral role in life, that aesthetic pleasure is the perception of perfection, that aesthetic rules are inevitable and valuable. Itshows that the criticisms of Kant and Nietzsche of this tradition are largelyunfounded. The rationalist tradition deserves re-examination because it is of great historical significance, marking the beginning of modern aesthetics, art criticism, and art history. This book represents a revolution in the historiography of German aesthetics and philosophy, shaped and canonized since Kant and Hegel. However, its provocative statements are simply the result of carefully rereading the long-dismissed pre-Kantian thinkers and of trying to understand them from the perspective of the questions which originally motivated their thinking. The result is the most informative and comprehensive presentation of German aesthetics and philosophy from Leibnizto Kant available today, one that can finally replace Beck's Kant and his Predecessors. INDICE: Introduction: Reappraising Aesthetic Rationalism Leibniz and the Roots of Aesthetic Rationalism Wolff and the Birth of Aesthetic Rationalism Gottsched and the Highnoon of Rationalism The Poets' War Baumgarten's Science of Aesthetics Winckelmann & Neo-Classicism Mendelssohn's Defense of Reason Lessing and Aesthetic Rationalism Bibliography

• ISBN: 978-0-19-969465-5
• Editorial: Oxford University
• Encuadernacion: Rústica
• Páginas: 306
• Fecha Publicación: 03/11/2011
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés