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The avant-garde’s visual arts in the context of Santayana’s idea of vital liberty

100%

Skowroński K.

Human Affairs

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2012

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vol. 22

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issue 2

142-160

EN

In the present paper, the author looks at the political dimension of some trends in the visual arts within twentieth-century avant-garde groups (cubism, expressionism, fauvism, Dada, abstractionism, surrealism) through George Santayana’s idea of vital liberty. Santayana accused the avant-gardists of social and political escapism, and of becoming unintentionally involved in secondary issues. In his view, the emphasis they placed on the medium (or diverse media) and on treating it as an aim in itself, not, as it should be, as a transmitter through which a stimulating relationship with the environment can be had, was accompanied by a focus on fragments of life and on parts of existence, and, on the other hand, by a de facto rejection of ontology and cosmology as being crucial to understanding life and the place of human beings in the universe. The avant-gardists became involved in political life by responding excessively to the events of the time, instead of to the everlasting problems that are the human lot.

2

Kantian Normal Idea vs Santayana’s ‘Psychology’ of Defining Characters as Aesthetic Forms

86%

Wawrzonkowski K.

Kultura i Edukacja

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2016

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issue 4(114)

63-77

EN

The objective of the presented article consists in the juxtaposition of two depictions of mechanisms of imagination which we use to create averaged images of all sensual experiences. The first of them is Kantian normal idea conducive to the construction of adherent beauty, whereas the second - Santayana’s concept of formation of a generic idea, aesthetic type or an ideal. It is my conviction that both these proposals are convergent, as they refer to the same method of functioning of the imagination, however they differ in certain details, as they are inscribed in nearly entirely opposite aesthetic concepts. However, Santayana’s theory of character creation goes further than Kant’s concept, as it exceeds the averaged image of the normal idea, and, while not being equivalent to Kantian aesthetic idea constituting a certain product of genius, it heads towards the idealisation of representations available to all people. The purpose behind Santayana’s concept proves to be more practical as compared to the solution proposed by Kant. In this depiction, we should recognise a universal mechanism of the imagination in the formation of characters as aesthetic forms, enabling a person to define his/her place and gain knowledge on the human world of attitudes, customs and ordinary behaviours.

3

Overvaluation: an Obstacle to Dialogue

58%

Lloyd S.

Dialogue and Universalism

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2017

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issue 1

7-21

EN

This paper offers a critical analysis of an obstacle to dialogue—“overvaluation.” Drawing on Immanuel Kant’s analysis of religious fanaticism as a contradictory and irrational attempt to access the supersensible by sensible means, this paper argues that overvaluation can, at its extreme, suppress prudential reasoning and other-regardingness and render dialogue impossible. Dialogue is an ideal of philosophical discourse that counters the negative prospects of extreme overvaluation. Dialogue is sustained by respect for others; it affirms self-regard in human relationships; and it resists absolutist thought, which is finally overvaluation detached from reasonableness, by being open to change and to the possibility of new understanding.

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The avant-garde’s visual arts in the context of Santayana’s idea of vital liberty

Kantian Normal Idea vs Santayana’s ‘Psychology’ of Defining Characters as Aesthetic Forms

Overvaluation: an Obstacle to Dialogue