Axel Rudolphi: "Towards a Theory of Aesthetic Triangulation"

Axel Rudolphi, Uppsala universitet: "Towards a Theory of Aesthetic Triangulation"

Abstract
This paper considers the question of how to square intuitions about the seemingly irreducible social dimension of aesthetics, with the commitment to aesthetic autonomy, as expressed in theories of aesthetic judgment departing from the Kantian tradition. My specific focus will be on a question addressed by Eileen John (2012), concerning whether we should make a strong or a weak claim about the role that the social consideration of aesthetic perspectives other than one’s own, should play in matters of aesthetic judgment. I argue that Hannah Arendt’s reading of Kant’s third Critique can provide us with an alternative way towards making the stronger claim, while maintaining a commitment to aesthetic autonomy. As such, sociality and sociability are not merely well served by aesthetic judgment, but are rather to be seen as a condition for its possibility.

This, I argue, points us in the direction of a triangulation model of aesthetic judgment, in which relations between self, other and object are seen as irreducible and mutually supporting. I consider the further outlooks for such a theory of aesthetic triangulation.