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Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism

Matei Calinescu, Matei Calinescu

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent history of modern(ist) aesthetics 4 out of 5 stars.
30 of 30 people found this review helpful.

Matei Calinescu's _The Five Faces of Modernity_ is an impressive intellectual history of five concepts central to aesthetics (i.e. the theory and philosophy of art) in the past two centuries-- the concepts of 'modernism', 'the avant-garde', 'decadence', 'kitsch', and 'postmodernism'. After an introductory discussion on the concept of 'modernity' itself, each of these concepts, or 'faces of modernity' is discussed in detail. This discussion generally includes an account of the word's origins and changes in its usage, close readings of important texts that used these concepts in exemplary or revolutionary ways, and a critical analysis of the assumptions that underly the term's application to aesthetics. Throughout, Calinescu ranges quite broadly in his scope, drawing upon texts from throughout Europe and the Americas (both North and South).

Calinescu's account is far too rich and complex to summarize here, but on the whole, the history of aesthetic thought he provides is based on solid research, compelling analysis, and insightful observation. In the process, he makes some astute, and rather surprising observations about how these aesthetic terms were initially used to describe politics or social thought, and only came to be applied to aesthetics later (this is especially true with 'avant-garde')-- yet, their aesthetic application is fundamentally shaped by their earlier social-political associations.

Although this book is quite solid, I do feel that it has some shortcomings that can't be ignored. First and foremost among these is that Calinescu's bizarre characterization of Romanticism. The Romantics, he rightly noted, were crucial in the development of modern aesthetics-- and in the notions of modernism, the avant-garde, and decadence in particular. However, his account of Romanticism is one that I simply do not recognize-- basically reducing it (somewhat inaccurately, I would add) to "the relativization of beauty" and the abandonment of the notion of eternal, transcendent truths or ideals. Part of the problem here is that Calinescu limits his discussion of Romanticism to France, focussing on Chateaubriand, Stendahl, and Hugo. If he had discussed the major German Romantic thinkers or the British Romantic poets, this account of Romanticism (and the role he assigns to it in developing a concept of 'modernity') simply could not stand.

The second main shortcoming of the book is that it focuses overwhelmingly on literary art. Painting and other forms of art are discussed a little bit in some of the chapters (particularly in the one on kitsch), but for the most part, Calinescu's book focuses on prose and poetry-- not on the visual arts (or still less on music). I think his account of some of these concepts (particularly 'modernism' and 'avant-garde') wuld have been greatly improved by considering them.

Still, those criticisms are relatively minor-- this is a great book and an important one on this subject. Highly recommended to intellectual historians, art historians, and those who are interested in a good 'history of ideas' account of these five aesthetic concepts.

Editorial Review:

The author discusses with remarkable insight and subtlety the complex relationships among concepts which are commonly used but rarely precisely defined...in doing so, he makes a significant contribution to contemporary scholarship and criticism.

Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of the Esthetics of Nature

Paul Shepard

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Editorial Review:

A pioneering exploration of the roots of our attitudes toward nature, Paul Shepard's most seminal work is as challenging and provocative today as when it first appeared in 1967. Man in the Landscape was among the first books of a new genre that has elucidated the ideas, beliefs, and images that lie behind our modern destruction and conservation of the natural world. Departing from the traditional study of land use as a history of technology, this book explores the emergence of modern attitudes in literature, art, and architecture--their evolutionary past and their taproot in European and Mediterranean cultures. With humor and wit, Shepard considers the influence of Christianity on ideas of nature, the absence of an ethic of nature in modern philosophy, and the obsessive themes of dominance and control as elements of the modern mind. In his discussions of the exploration of the American West, the establishment of the first national parks, and the reactions of pioneers to their totally new habitat, he identifies the transport of traditional imagery into new places as a sort of cultural baggage.

Meaning

Michael Polanyi, Harry Prosch

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Published very shortly before his death in February 1976, Meaning is the culmination of Michael Polanyi's philosophic endeavors. With the assistance of Harry Prosch, Polanyi goes beyond his earlier critique of scientific "objectivity" to investigate meaning as founded upon the imaginative and creative faculties.

Establishing that science is an inherently normative form of knowledge and that society gives meaning to science instead of being given the "truth" by science, Polanyi contends here that the foundation of meaning is the creative imagination. Largely through metaphorical expression in poetry, art, myth, and religion, the imagination is used to synthesize the otherwise chaotic and disparate elements of life. To Polanyi these integrations stand with those of science as equally valid modes of knowledge. He hopes this view of the foundation of meaning will restore validity to the traditional ideas that were undercut by modern science. Polanyi also outlines the general conditions of a free society that encourage varied approaches to truth, and includes an illuminating discussion of how to restore, to modern minds, the possibility for the acceptance of religion.

A Guide to Heidegger's Being and Time (S U N Y Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy)

Magda King, John Llewellyn

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A Beginner's Guide to S&Z 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

As the backcover promised, King's lectures/commentary are quite easy to understand and move at a brisque but manageable pace. She doesn't dwell on minute issues in the text, but chooses instead to survey (generally) all the major (and quite difficult) concepts which Heidegger introduces in S&Z. At times I wished that King discussed matters in more detail: no mention of sec. 42 and the myth of care, or much discussion of the "Cartesian" metaphysic which is so central to H's "Abbau"; but as a first time reader of S&Z, perhaps this was the best thing for me, that I solidify my understanding of key terms and ideas before delving into more contentious matters of interpretation. My experience was only slightly frustrated by the fact that I read the Maccquarrie translation and not the newer Stambaugh, which she uses.

Editorial Review:

This is the most comprehensive commentary on both Divisions of Heidegger's Being and Time, making it the essential guide for newcomers and specialists alike. Beginning with a non-technical exposition of the question Heidegger poses--"What does it mean to be?"--and keeping that question in view, it gradually increases the closeness of focus on the text. Citing Joan Stambaugh's translation, the author explains the key notions of the original with the help of concrete illustrations and reference to certain of the most relevant works Heidegger composed both before and after the publication of Being and Time.

The Philosophy of Art: Readings Ancient and Modern

Alex Neill, Aaron Ridley

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Editorial Review:

This anthology is intended as a core text for courses in aesthetics or philosophy of art. It contains a wealth of readings from both classic and contemporary sources, and aims to present substantial selections from those texts rather than mere "snippets." Readings are organized historically within four broad themes so that students can see how concepts of art have evolved and been debated. Each reading is introduced by the authors, who suggest connections between the reading and others in the anthology. Unlike other anthologies on the market, The Philosophy of Art is both comprehensive and affordable, making it the ideal book for course use.

The Open Work

Umberto Eco

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More than twenty years after its original appearance in Italian, The Open Work remains significant for its powerful concept of "openness"--the artist's decision to leave arrangements of some constituents of a work to the public or to chance--and for its striking anticipation of two major themes of contemporary literary theory: the element of multiplicity and plurality in art, and the insistence on literary response as an interactive process between reader and text. The questions Umberto Eco raises, and the answers he suggests, are intertwined in the continuing debate on literature, art, and culture in general.

This entirely new edition, edited for the English-language audience with the approval of Eco himself, includes an authoritative introduction by David Robey that explores Eco's thought at the period of The Open Work, prior to his absorption in semiotics. The book now contains key essays on Eco's mentor Luigi Pareyson, on television and mass culture, and on the politics of art. Harvard University Press will publish separately and simultaneously the extended study of James Joyce that was originally part of The Open Work, entitled The Aesthetics of Chaosmos: The Middle Ages of James Joyce. The Open Work explores a set of issues in aesthetics that remain central to critical theory, and does so in a characteristically vivid style. Eco's convincing manner of presenting ideas and his instinct for the lively example are threaded compellingly throughout. This book is at once a major treatise in modern aesthetics and an excellent introduction to Eco's thought.

Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity

Thomas Metzinger

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Editorial Review:

According to Thomas Metzinger, no such things as selves exist in the world: nobody ever had or was a self. All that exists are phenomenal selves, as they appear in conscious experience. The phenomenal self, however, is not a thing but an ongoing process; it is the content of a "transparent self-model." In Being No One, Metzinger, a German philosopher, draws strongly on neuroscientific research to present a representationalist and functional analysis of what a consciously experienced first-person perspective actually is. Building a bridge between the humanities and the empirical sciences of the mind, he develops new conceptual toolkits and metaphors; uses case studies of unusual states of mind such as agnosia, neglect, blindsight, and hallucinations; and offers new sets of multilevel constraints for the concept of consciousness. Metzinger's central question is: How exactly does strong, consciously experienced subjectivity emerge out of objective events in the natural world? His epistemic goal is to determine whether conscious experience, in particular the experience of being someone that results from the emergence of a phenomenal self, can be analyzed on subpersonal levels of description. He also asks if and how our Cartesian intuitions that subjective experiences as such can never be reductively explained are themselves ultimately rooted in the deeper representational structure of our conscious minds.

Aesthetics (Oxford Readers)

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Great book on Aesthetics 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 33 people found this review helpful.

This is more than just the result of the growth in academic specialization. No one comes out of a Ph.D. program in philosophy without some grounding in metaphysics and epistemology, logic and philosophy of science, the history of philosophy and ethics. Metaphysics and epistemology, like logic, are defined as `core areas' of philosophy. History and ethics, while not core areas, belong nonetheless to the `essential perimeter' of the field. It is difficult - indeed, in most programs, impossible - to get a Ph.D. without doing work in these areas. They are areas in which everyone is expected to have opinions and be able to discuss at least the standard problems.

Because the same is not true of aesthetics, the vast majority of philosophers enter the profession with little or no knowledge of the methods or questions of the field. As a result, philosophers generally either ignore issues of art and aesthetics or think of them as having little or no bearing on the central concerns of the discipline. Most systematic philosophers pass entire careers without ever turning their attention to questions of art or beauty. Davidson and Goodman are rare exceptions. Nor is this lack of interest in aesthetics - or the related absence of aesthetics from the pages of the most widely read and prestigious philosophy journals - likely to raise any eyebrows. And so, when philosophy departments sit down to determine the fields in which they wish to hire, it should come as no surprise that it doesn't occur to anyone to think of aesthetics. Marginalization begets marginalization.

So much for the de facto standing of aesthetics. What are we to make of this situation? This leads to the third question mentioned above: what is the proper standing, the true value or significance, of aesthetics?

Perhaps the most common answer to this question is that aesthetics, properly understood, just is philosophically marginal. The view that the de facto standing of aesthetics is indeed its proper standing is held not only by philistines who don't care about art - "this is all aesthetics deserves" - but also by those, like Stanley Cavell and Ted Cohen, who care about art a great deal - as Cohen puts it, "it is here, despite the precariousness of its position, that aesthetics is at its best."

Editorial Review:

Can we ever claim to understand a work of art or be objective about it? Why have cultures thought it important to separate out a group of objects and call them art? What does aesthetics contribute to our understanding of the natural landscape? Are the concepts of art and the aesthetic elitist? Addressing these and other issues in aesthetics, this important new Oxford Reader includes articles by authors ranging from Aristotle and Xie-He to Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Michael Baxandall, and Susan Sontag. It focuses on why art and a variety of aesthetics matter to us, and on how perceivers participate in and contribute to the experience of appreciating a work of art. With its multicultural and multidisciplinary scope, this volume shows how anthropology, art history, Chinese theories of painting, and other perspectives both enrich and provide alternatives to classic philosophical accounts of art and the aesthetic.

Death of the Soul: From Descartes to the Computer

William Barrett

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

excellent intro to philosophy & its place in modern society 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.

Somebody needs to go pound on the publisher's door to get this back in stock or in print. I took a class in the Philosophy of Technology putting this and Ellul's _The Technological Society_ together, and it really redefined the way I view technology, especially as modern America values it. Barrett takes you through the residual effects of Cartesian thinking in the implicit scientific materialist philosophy that most Americans inherit; written with both a balanced mind and a passion for philosophy. And if that's not enough, or doesn't make sense, it's just a damn fine intro to philosophy that's not hard to read (if you're by any chance teaching a class and need to introduce Descartes and Kant, this is your book). Also reccomend Ellul, above, and Barrett's _Irrational Man_, a treatise on Existential philosophy with a similar tone.

WOW 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I realy Realy need a copy of this book. The last time I read this in a class, was the last time my teacher was alive and no one else is teaching it. So, I've been looking all over Montreal, Canada for this book and I can't find it. I was too dumb then to buy it. Now I regret! it!

Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals: Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham

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Stunning Introduction to the Complex Medieval Theory of 'Universals' 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

"It is easy to motivate the problem of universals. Consider these two capital letters: A A. Ignore everything else about them and for now observe only that they are of the same color; they are both black.... Isn't it obvious that you see two colors here, two blacknesses: the blackness of the first A, this blackness, and then the blackness of the second A, that blackness?... But aren't they visually as distinct as the two letters themselves?... The problem of universals is in effect the problem of deciding between these answers" (pg vii).

The reason I included this long quote is to show how wonderful Paul Vincent Spade's introduction is for this quote illustrates in a nutshell the underling problem of Universals in a clear and precise way (the actual writers on the theory never manage to explain themselves this precisely). The importance of clarity and concise analysis is vital since the Medieval dialogue about the nature of Universals is complex, sometimes excruciatingly difficult, and an introduction which lays out the basic premises and questions is the first step of comprehension! Also, the introduction briefly summarizes each text EXCERPT and their author present in the volume. Portions from Porhyry's 'Isagoge,' Boethius 'Second Commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge,' Peter Abelard's Glosses on Porphyry in his 'Logica 'ingredientibus,'' John Duns Scotus 'Ordinatio,' and William of Ockham's 'Ordinatio' are in the volume. These excerpts trace in chronological order the main philosophers involved with the question of Universals starting with the questions posed by Porphyry.

The introduction and Excerpts form an amazing (yet still somewhat difficult) text for a student interested in Medieval Philosophy. However, volume's wonderful index of the main terms is a great tool for easy clarification and reference. This is simply an invaluable resource and a great starting point for the study of the Medieval problem of Universals!

Editorial Review:

New translations of the central medieval texts on the problem of universals are presented here in an affordable edition suitable for use in courses in medieval philosophy, history of medieval philosophy, and universals. Includes a concise introduction, glossary of important terms, notes, and bibliography.