Subscribe to get parts 1-3 of this discussion ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Mark and Wes conclude with some close reading of Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), section 3: "Relation of Art to Philosophy." What exactly is self-consciousness, and how to we achieve it? We try to really figure out Schelling's story about art in light of his general Continue Reading …
Ep. 322: Schelling on Art vs. Nature (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1-3 of this discussion now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing (sans Seth) from part one on "On the Relation Between the Plastic Arts and Nature" (1807) and Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800). We finish up the 1807 speech by talking about sculpture vs. painting and then move on to this penultimate chapter of this Continue Reading …
Ep. 322: Schelling on Art vs. Nature (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing (sans Seth) from part one on "On the Relation Between the Plastic Arts and Nature" (1807) and Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800). We finish up the 1807 speech by talking about sculpture vs. painting and then move on to this penultimate chapter of this early, systematic, seminal work whose beginning we treated in episodes 273 and 274. The System of Continue Reading …
Ep. 322: Schelling on Art vs. Nature (Part One for Supporters)
Discussing Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling's "On the Relation Between the Plastic Arts and Nature" (1807) and Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Is the goal of art to imitate nature? Schelling says "sort of." It's not supposed to just be a copy, but is supposed to convey the true inner nature of its subject: It copies Continue Reading …
Ep. 321: August Schlegel on Beauty (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including (next week) a supporter-exclusive Nightcap discussion. Covering the elder Schlegel brother's Theory of Art (ca. 1800), as excerpted in Theory as Practice: A Critical Anthology of Early German Romantic Writings. Sponsors: Get 15% off a newly cheaper annual membership at Continue Reading …
Ep. 321: August Schlegel on Beauty (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on our excerpt from Theory of Art (ca. 1800), we get more into the text, covering Schlegel's critique of various elements of Kant's philosophy of art. We start with the distinction between free and accessory beauty: Are there some perceptions of beauty that are entirely divorced from a notion of the purpose or type of thing that we're perceiving as Continue Reading …
Ep. 321: August Schlegel on Beauty (Part One for Supporters)
Covering the elder Schlegel brother's Theory of Art (ca. 1800), as excerpted in Theory as Practice: A Critical Anthology of Early German Romantic Writings. August Wilhelm Schlegel was five years older than Friedrich, and was also a well known art critic of his time. This text is a Romantic response to Kant's Third Critique, and we looked back at Kant's comments on the Continue Reading …
Ep. 319: Schiller on Experiencing Beauty (Part Three for Supporters)
In our final word on Friedrich Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), we cover letters 24-27 in more detail than we had time for in supposedly finishing with this reading in part two. Schiller talks first about hypothetical Reason, where Reason doesn't actually pull us toward Kantian morality, but just lets us get what we want more effectively. By granting us Continue Reading …
Ep. 319: Schiller on Experiencing Beauty (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including a supporter-exclusive part three to this discussion. On the second half of Friedrich Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), with Mark, Wes, and Dylan. You might want to listen to ep. 318 first. While the overall argument is still that an education in appreciating art Continue Reading …
Ep. 319: Schiller on Experiencing Beauty (Part Two for Supporters)
Starting with letter 20 in On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), we tell more of the story of how art is supposed to get us from sensation to thinking. This continues from part one and ultimately from ep. 318. As a Romantic, Schiller's aesthetic theory is very central to his take on epistemology and human nature. For Kant (whose aesthetic theory Schiller is working off Continue Reading …
Ep. 319: Schiller on Experiencing Beauty (Part One for Supporters)
On the second half of Friedrich Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), with Mark, Wes, and Dylan. You might want to listen to ep. 318 first. While the overall argument is still that an education in appreciating art can transform the masses from desire-driven savages into rational beings worthy of representative government, starting around letter 14 through the Continue Reading …
Ep. 318: Friedrich Schiller on the Civilizing Potential of Art (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive part three. Listen to a preview.. We continue (from part one) working through letters 1-15 of On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), helped by Markus Reuter. By the end of this, we get a clearer picture of what Schiller means by the experience of Beauty. We have a sensuous drive on the one hand Continue Reading …
Ep. 318: Friedrich Schiller on the Civilizing Potential of Art (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including an exclusive part three to this discussion. Can art make us better people? Musician Markus Reuter joins Mark, Wes, and Seth to discussion the first half of On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795). Schiller was a famous poet of early German Romanticism, and this book is partly Continue Reading …
Ep. 318: Friedrich Schiller on the Civilizing Potential of Art (Part Two for Supporters)
We continue (from part one) working through letters 1-15 of On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), helped by Markus Reuter. By the end of this, we get a clearer picture of what Schiller means by the experience of Beauty. We have a sensuous drive on the one hand to fill our experience with material stuff, and a form drive on the other that raises us up (a la Plato) to wonder Continue Reading …
Ep. 318: Friedrich Schiller on the Civilizing Potential of Art (Part One for Supporters)
Can art make us better people? Musician Markus Reuter joins Mark, Wes, and Seth to discussion the first half of On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795). Schiller was a famous poet of early German Romanticism, and this book is partly political philosophy and partly philosophy of art. The work takes the form of a series of letters. We read 1-15 for this discussion and will cover Continue Reading …
Ep. 292: Langer on Symbolic Music (Part One)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 8-10 ("On Significance in Music," "The Genesis of Artistic Import," and "The Fabric of Meaning" respectively), plus ch. 7, "The Image of Time," from her Form and Feeling (1953). Is music a language? If it's "expressive," what exactly Continue Reading …
Ep. 292: Langer on Symbolic Music (Part Two for Supporters)
Concluding from part one on Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (ch. 8-10). We continue discussion whether and how music is symbolic, contrasting Langer's take with Scruton's on Eduard Hanslick: you can't just consider music as "intransitively referential" or referring only to itself, because that's not reference at all.. Wes brings up Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Continue Reading …
Ep. 292: Langer on Symbolic Music (Part One for Supporters)
On Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 8-10 ("On Significance in Music," "The Genesis of Artistic Import," and "The Fabric of Meaning), plus ch. 7, "The Image of Time," from her Form and Feeling (1953). Is music a language? If it's "expressive," what exactly does it express? Langer focuses on music to get at the sorts of symbolism associated specifically Continue Reading …
Ep. 289: Aesthetic Sense Theory: Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume (Part One)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On David Hume's "The Standard of Taste" (1760) and its two main influences: The Moralists: A Philosophical Rhapsody (1709) by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, aka the third Earl of Shaftesbury, Part III section 2 "Beauty," and An Inquiry Concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony, Design (1725) by Continue Reading …
Ep. 289: Aesthetic Sense Theory: Hume (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one, we get into more detail on David Hume's "The Standard of Taste" (1760). Hume starts out with a paradox: On the one hand, we believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; it's not a property of objects but of the interaction between an object and an observer. On the other hand, some works are obviously, objectively more beautiful than others, Continue Reading …