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The Aesthetic Possibility of the Work of Art

The Aesthetic Possibility of the Work of Art christoph menke Translated by Seth Thorn The Possibility and Actuality of Art A familiar way of starting to think about art is to submit it to the standard form of philosophical investigation defined by the sequence of an existential statement followed by a question. The existential statement concerns a particular class of things. The question concerns what makes these things possible. Let us say preliminarily: the question concerns the potential whose actualization is to be understood as a thing of that particular kind. The form of this investigation is well known, for it has defined philosophy since Socrates. What is essential to this form is that the being and mode-of-being of things are not simply taken for granted; rather, they are questioned or "problematized." In the light of this questioning, things seem neither self-evidently given nor miraculous but, in Aristotelian terms, "problematic." They become something, in other words, that we want to, and can, understand or explain. The form of this philosophical understanding is the explanation of the reality [Wirklichkeit] of these objects as the actualization [Verwirklichung] of a possibility. That is how Kant pro- ceeds in the first Critique: he begins by claiming that "there is pure http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences University of Nebraska Press

The Aesthetic Possibility of the Work of Art

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University of Nebraska Press
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Abstract

christoph menke Translated by Seth Thorn The Possibility and Actuality of Art A familiar way of starting to think about art is to submit it to the standard form of philosophical investigation defined by the sequence of an existential statement followed by a question. The existential statement concerns a particular class of things. The question concerns what makes these things possible. Let us say preliminarily: the question concerns the potential whose actualization is to be understood as a thing of that particular kind. The form of this investigation is well known, for it has defined philosophy since Socrates. What is essential to this form is that the being and mode-of-being of things are not simply taken for granted; rather, they are questioned or "problematized." In the light of this questioning, things seem neither self-evidently given nor miraculous but, in Aristotelian terms, "problematic." They become something, in other words, that we want to, and can, understand or explain. The form of this philosophical understanding is the explanation of the reality [Wirklichkeit] of these objects as the actualization [Verwirklichung] of a possibility. That is how Kant pro- ceeds in the first Critique: he begins by claiming that "there is pure

Journal

Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences – University of Nebraska Press

Published: Oct 9, 2014

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