Problem description:
Thank you, hehe
Analysis:
The uselessness of art plays an absolute role in modern life-unconditionally affirming the independence and freedom of the self. Since the birth of18th century, aesthetics has emphasized the principle of artistic self-discipline, which undoubtedly includes the appeal to the spirit of freedom. By the middle of19th century, aestheticism advocated the principle of "art for art's sake", and its representative O. Wilde clearly stated: "Art shows nothing but itself. Art, like thought, has its own independent life and develops purely according to its own route. " (Note: O. Wilde's Deception of Lies, in H. Adams (ed. ), Critical Theory Reader, Hackett Bras Jovanovic Company, 197 1. This shows that modern life has developed to such a point that the possibility of reconciliation with art has been completely lost. Art has become a critical mirror, showing "the irreconcilable nature of aesthetic world and life world". (Noe: Habermas, "Modernity-A Complete Project", in H Foster (ed. ), anti-aesthetics, Gulf Press, 1983. Marx's aesthetic thought inspired the cultural criticism theory of Frankfurt School in the 20th century. Adorno and Marcuse, the two leading figures of this school, both advocate the critical power of art to capitalist reality. Marcuse clearly pointed out that the revolutionary power of art exists in the aesthetic form of works of art, which is a dimension of liberation. "Aesthetic form endows the content and experience accustomed to it with an unusual power, which leads to the birth of new consciousness and new perception." (Noe: [Germany] Marcuse: The Dimension of Aesthetics, translated by Li Xiaobing, Joint Publishing Company, 1989, p. 235. According to the inherent strength of aesthetic form, Marcuse put forward a plan to cultivate people's new sensibility (perceptual ability in line with the principle of freedom) through art (aesthetic form) to realize revolution. He said: "Art can't change the world, but it can work to change the consciousness and impulse of men and women, and these men and women can change the world." (Noe: [Germany] Marcuse: The Dimension of Aesthetics, translated by Li Xiaobing, Joint Publishing Company, 1989, p. 229. Marcuse's view of aesthetic form is still a traditional concept of beauty, which contains harmonious fantasy, ideal modeling and surreal existence of artistic works. The basic function of aesthetic form is to turn the given content into a self-sufficient whole-an independent and free artistic work beyond real life. Marcuse's aesthetic thought contains the artistic idealism consciousness of aestheticism, and his artistic idealism is more prominent under the cultural background of the 20th century. In the 20th century, the universal marketization of social life and the worldwide movement of popular culture not only abolished the self-discipline of artistic activities, but also "today's aesthetic production has been generally transformed into commodity production". (Noe: F Jameson's Postmodernism * *, or "Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism * * *", Duke University Press, 199 1, p. 4) It has become an aesthetic form of goods (artworks), not only not a liberating force, but also a new repressive force. Accurately speaking, in the social life of the 20th century, all cultural fields, including art, suffered the fate of being merged into commodities by the capitalist commodity economy. Adorno believes that art can only maintain its vitality through its social strength. Different from Marcuse, Adorno believes that even on the purely formal level, the harmony of works of art has never been realized. In the definition of harmony and illusion, there are always factors of despair and confrontation. Conflict is the truth of harmony. (Note: T.W. Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, tr. &; Edited by …, R. Hullot-Kentor, University of Minnesota Press, 1997, p. 1 10. Therefore, the power of art does not come from the independence of its self-enclosed aesthetic form, but from its non-identity with self-discipline and heteronomy, harmony and conflict in commodity society. Under the principle of non-identity, Adorno affirmed the fragmented form of avant-garde art and the attitude of refusing social interaction, which was considered as a necessary strategy to resist the integrated exchange society. San Adorno's aesthetic thought advocates the principle of confrontation between art and modern life. Habermas called this principle of artistic confrontation aesthetic modernity, and its main purpose was to criticize and resist the social modernity ruled by instrumental rationality. (Noe: Habermas, "Modernity-A Complete Project", in H Foster (ed. ), anti-aesthetics, Gulf Press, 1983. Here, aesthetics shows the other side of modern life: the lofty sense of modernity. It is opposite to the aesthetic consciousness aiming at classical harmony. In Critique of Judgment, Kant gave three basic rules of sublimity: first, the object called sublime is absolutely big (or powerful); Secondly, compared with the formal object of beauty, sublimity is a formless object; Third, the sublime does not exist in any natural objects, but only in our hearts. In nature, when the image of an object is beyond our imagination because of its huge quantity (power), it will produce a kind of unhappiness in our hearts. However, when we judge this object as "huge", it is our reason that endows the concept of "huge". Relative to the lack of imagination, the greatness of reason is revealed. So we feel the sense of infinity and freedom that reason transcends natural objects, and feel the pleasure. This is the sense of sublimity. Kant believes that the essence of sublimity is that the ego has produced feelings beyond nature on super-large (powerful) natural objects. He believes that although feeling sublime in natural objects requires more cultural education than feeling beautiful, the sense of sublime (self-transcendence of nature) is rooted in human nature. The traditional sublimity regards God as a sublime entity (foundation), which sets the unity of God between man and nature. Kant regards self-rationality as the source of sublimity and the infinite freedom (transcendence) of rationality as the real content of sublimity, which is the modern transformation of sublimity consciousness. Kant's lofty thought has a strong shadow of Rousseau's view of freedom-nature. Rousseau advocated that human existence should return to the natural state, because nature is the mother and prototype of human freedom. Undoubtedly, Kant made Rousseau's thoughts subjective and rational. Kant's lofty idea is suitable for the principle of subjectivity advocated by enlightenment thought. However, its subjectivity and idealism have been revised or reformed in the further development of modern life. As far as its positive influence is concerned, Kant's sublime thought provides two concepts for the sublimity of modernity: one is the infinite sense of hypershape (image); Second, the irreconcilable conflict between man and nature. These two concepts not only influenced the basic concepts of sublimity in later aesthetics, but also actually became the aesthetic basis of romanticism and avant-garde art. Therefore, Adorno said, "Sublime, what Kant completely left to nature, later became the historical element of art itself." (Note: T.W. Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, tr. &; Edited by …, R. Hullot-Kentor, University of Minnesota Press, 1997, p. 196. Schelling's artistic philosophy clearly regards sublimity as the most essential feature of art, and he believes that all real artistic creation is from conscious activities to unconscious activities. An artist begins by consciously creating a work, but his finished work goes beyond his limited consciousness and shows infinite things (infinity). "The basic feature of works of art is unconscious infinity [the combination of nature and freedom]." (Noe: Schelling: Transcendental Idealism System, translated by Liang Zhixue, Commercial Press, 1983, p. 270. The infinity of a work of art lies in its sublimity. Schelling also admitted that all works of art must reach the realm of beauty. Beauty is the reconciliation of the eternal contradiction between conscious and unconscious activities of people in works of art and the unity of both sides of the contradiction. The real expression of unity is to show the unconscious infinity in the intuitive form of artistic works. Therefore, for Schelling, the beauty of works of art must not only contain sublime content, but also sublime is the most fundamental content of beauty. Here, we should see that although Schelling also advocates that the basic goal of art is to realize the unity of consciousness and unconsciousness (sensibility and rationality), unlike Kant and Hegel, who ruled sensibility with rationality, he unified the freedom of consciousness and the infinity of unconsciousness. Schelling clearly pointed out that the artist's activity is defined as the creation of genius because he can bring his conscious freedom into the unconscious infinity. This unconscious infinity is the nature that contains and produces freedom. The real value of art is to realize the natural return of man from the limited state of consciousness and freedom to the infinite state of unconsciousness. Schelling said: "Because of this, art is a noble thing for philosophers, because art seems to open the most sacred place for philosophers. Here, in the unity of eternity and primitive, things that have been divorced from nature and history, and things that must be avoided forever in life, action and thinking, seem to burn into a flame. Philosophers' views on the artificial composition of nature are primitive and natural views on art. What we call nature is a poem written in a mysterious, tightly sealed and unknown book. " (Noe: [Germany] Schelling: "Transcendental Idealism System", p. 276. Compared with Kant, Schelling's lofty thought can be briefly expressed as follows: freedom is limited as a conscious activity of human beings; Sublime is only the expression of the unconscious infinity of nature. This lofty thought embodies the criticism of the subjectivity principle and rationalism of modern philosophy. It does not advocate the infinite expansion of human reason and freedom, but regards the unity (return) of reason and freedom with nature as a higher possibility of human spiritual survival. Schelling is closer to Rousseau. Of course, more importantly, Schelling's thought has a more critical understanding of the basic situation of modern life: superstition and extreme expansion of freedom and rationality have become the basic tools for capitalist production to deprive humanity. Therefore, Schelling believes that the highest mission of art is not to praise freedom, but to praise nature; Not to preach limited knowledge, but to awaken the unconscious. Furthermore, defining the sublime by the infinity of nature actually opens up an unconscious space for human existence and freedom that cannot be finally conquered by technical rationality and materialized consciousness. Schelling's aesthetics is a real romantic aesthetics, and it is right to be called a romantic philosophy tutor. It should be said that it is through Schelling's artistic philosophy that sublimity becomes the historical element of art after Kant. Of course, in the further development of sublime aesthetics, the important role of German philosopher Nietzsche cannot be ignored. In The Birth of Tragedy, he pointed out for the first time that Greek tragedy is the product of eternal conflict between Apollo spirit which affirms the principle of individualization and Dionysian spirit which denies individualization. The tragic spirit is essentially a musical spirit that affirms and praises the original unity and eternal conflict of the life world (nature). Poetry is inferior to music in expressing (symbolizing) the highest essence and universal significance of life. Language, as an organ and symbol of phenomena, can never reveal the profound content of music. When he tries to imitate music, it can only have superficial contact with music. (Noe: [Germany] Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy/Selected Works of Nietzsche's Aesthetics, translated, Joint Publishing Company, 1987, p. 24. Nietzsche said that art is the highest mission of life and the metaphysical activity in the future. He defined the boundary between art and reason, and regarded the irrational (unconscious) eternal impulse of life as the lofty content of artistic expression. In the words of the French philosopher j .-F. lyotar, modern aesthetics is sublime aesthetics, which encourages art to put forward things that cannot be expressed as missing elements. (Note: J.-F. Lyota, Postmodern Situation, University of Minnesota Press, 1984, p. 8 1 page. ) After the appearance of sublime aesthetics, art became the witness of uncertainty. Sublime aesthetics does not recognize the reconciliation of basic contradictions in art and spiritual life, but affirms and emphasizes conflicts. However, in the two sides of contradiction, sublime aesthetics affirms and emphasizes sensibility, unconsciousness, infinity and uncertainty, rather than rationality, consciousness, concept and certainty. Lyotard believes that the affirmation of uncertainty, the pursuit of things that can't be expressed and lofty aesthetics liberate art from the classical imitation rules, thus opening the way for the later avant-garde art, which no longer imitates nature and plays the role of communication in society. Its purpose is only to ask and show the occurrence or appearance of nameless things (it happened, or it happened). (Noe: J.-F. Lyotard, The Inhumane, Tr. , g. Benington, e, Political Publishing House, 1988, p. 103- 104. When aesthetics completely defends the opposing avant-garde art, aesthetics passes the lofty right and wrong. Since its establishment, aesthetics has always pointed to the promotion of human beings from nature to rationality (spirit). Of course, the process of promotion needs to reflect the free development of sensibility and the conscious and active appeal of awakened individuals to the whole, so promotion is understood as the harmonious unity of sensibility and rationality, individual and whole, freedom and nature. The sublime aesthetics of modernity expresses the abandonment and resistance to aesthetic sublimation through avant-garde art, which regards harmony and unity as the illusion of optimism and thinks that this illusion itself has become the depressive mode of modern life. Anti-aesthetic sublimation, avant-garde art pursues life restoration with the help of irrational impulse released by lofty aesthetics, and experiences primitive (barbaric) existence in the continuous movement of conflict and destruction. Aesthetics has been telling the story of "self" ideal in modern life, whether it is about "beauty" or "sublimity" since it was founded in the middle of18th century. Facing all the realities of self-life, aesthetics always pursues self as hope and possibility. The difference is that aesthetics tells a positive story through beauty and a negative story through sublimity. However, whether positive or negative, self is always the center and theme of aesthetic narration, while modern life is the object and theme. After the rapid development of science and technology and economy in the 20th century, a highly integrated exchange society has become a global living environment for human beings. In this environment, postmodern theorists claim that the self idealized by the Enlightenment and pursued by aesthetics for more than 200 years has been completely integrated or dissolved. Correspondingly, the aesthetic story seems to be over. Because aesthetics has become an illusory "ideology". First of all, we must admit that postmodern theory is not empty for the development of modern life; They often hit the nail on the head about art and aesthetics. However, we still can't accept their series of "end" theories. Aesthetics did not exhaust its resources in the 20th century, and art should not end up in the entertainment games of popular culture after the avant-garde movement. However, aesthetics must turn, that is, from self-centeredness to the whole world. Here, we should pay special attention to Heidegger's aesthetics after Nietzsche. Heidegger should belong to the lofty aesthetic tradition. But he didn't take the route of life restoration initiated by Nietzsche to praise primitive life. On the contrary, he extended the affirmation of art to the experience and display of human existence around the world. Heidegger believes that the essence of art is not to create beauty, but to show (activate) the truth of existence. Through works of art, truth manifests itself as the eternal conflict between the world and the earth, that is, the eternal conflict between showing and hiding. The display of truth is essentially poetry, and art is the poetic projection of truth to the existence of human history. (Note: M. Heidegger, The Origin of Works or Art, in Poetry, Language and Thought, tr.a. hofstadter, Harper &; Pai, publisher, 1975. Heidegger thinks about the possibility and significance of art on the basis of existence, that is, on the basis of asking how human existence is possible in non-divine modern life. Existence, world and poetry are the three key words of Heidegger's aesthetics, and their unity (perhaps including "the earth" as the fourth key word) has opened up a new aesthetic space-art. Accurately speaking, Heidegger's aesthetics has broken through the self-centered aesthetic space and transformed aesthetics into a self-activity that is open to the world through art. This is undoubtedly of great significance to the basic integrity of the increasingly lonely self-return existence in modern life. This meaning cannot be further developed in the background of the 20th century. It should be a new possibility of 2 1 century aesthetics. When exploring this possibility, we will find the important value of China's traditional artistic spirit, which has long been the basic aesthetic object of nature as a whole.