Category Archives: aesthetics

The irreducible significance of literature: David Wellbery on Goethe, Cavell and de Man

Posted on 26/12/2017 by lexipenia

David E. Wellbery is LeRoy T. and Margaret Deffenbaugh Carlson Professor at University of Chicago, where he chairs the Department of Germanic Studies and is a member of the Committee on Social Thought. A renowned scholar of the German tradition, … Continue reading →

Posted in academia, aesthetic experience, aesthetics, cognitivism, Goethe, idealism, interviews, literary form, literature, Paul de Man, philosophy, poetry, Stanley Cavell, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On Beauty

Posted on 26/12/2017 by lexipenia

On 26 April 2017 I participated in a panel discussion on beauty in Berlin. Here’s what I and the others said: The word “beautiful” is used in relation to a loose range of phenomena. When we look for beauty in … Continue reading →

Posted in academia, aesthetic experience, aesthetics, beauty, criticism, ethical criticism, ethics, Kant, philosophy, Stanley Cavell | Leave a comment

Zwischen Überlieferung und Kritik: Moderne und Postmoderne Haltungen gegenüber dem Problem der Legitimität

Posted on 06/10/2014 by lexipenia

An old conference paper of mine in German is now available in the online journal Paedeia, vol.2 (Spring 2014), 88–104. It’s not the greatest piece of writing, but may be of interest to some. Here’s a link.

Posted in academia, aesthetics, form, Hegel, literary form, literature, modernism, Nietzsche, parody, pastiche, philosophy, poetry, postmodernism, poststructuralism, Pynchon, Stanley Cavell, T S Eliot, work | Leave a comment

Le vagabondage de la raison : Proust et la pensée de l’essai selon Adorno

Posted on 10/08/2014 by lexipenia

I’ve got an article appearing in the Bulletin d’informations proustiennes this October discussing Proust’s essayism in relation to Adorno. PDF of the proofs for anyone interested.

Posted in Adorno, aesthetics, concepts, essay, essayism, form, literature, novel, philosophy, Proust, publications | Leave a comment

If an artwork is morally dubious, does that make it aesthetically bad?

Posted on 22/06/2014 by lexipenia

This stupid question needlessly dominates so much discourse about the “ethical criticism” of artworks. I wish it could be torpedoed out of sight. The question is stupid because (i) the answer is obviously “no”; (ii) it risks conflating two forms … Continue reading →

Posted in aesthetic experience, aesthetics, criticism, ethical criticism, ethics, philosophy, pointless rants, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Beethoven, Cavell and Talking Nonsense

Posted on 03/04/2014 by lexipenia

In music, film and literature (though not in visual art), grammar is the question of what comes next. The grammar of natural languages imposes restrictions on word order. Functional harmony frowns upon certain progressions of chords. The famous Kushelov Effect suggests … Continue reading →

Posted in academia, Adorno, aesthetic experience, aesthetics, criticism, ethics, form, literature, music, philosophy, pointless rants, Rilke, Stanley Cavell, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Nouveaux dialogues entre littérature et philosophie

Posted on 17/03/2014 by lexipenia

For French readers, I have a review up at Acta fabula discussing questions of form in literature and philosophy. Existe‑t‑il vraiment une distinction précise entre la littérature et la philosophie ? Au moins depuis l’époque poststructuraliste, la tendance des départements … Continue reading →

Posted in academia, aesthetic experience, aesthetics, Cora Diamond, ethics, form, literature, philosophy, publications, reviews, Robert Brandom, work | Leave a comment

Ideology, the aesthetic, and the difficulty of reality

Posted on 03/06/2013 by lexipenia

CHICAGO, IL. – My first post from outside Berlin. I’m currently sheltered in my graduate-housing “unit”. Blog-writing has dried up recently, which is more than I can say for the weather. I’m on exchange to the US, paying my dues … Continue reading →

Posted in aesthetics, Cora Diamond, criticism, difficulty, ideology, literary canon, philosophy, relativism | 3 Comments

Nelson Goodman, ‘Languages of Art’ (1968); or, The Disappointment of Philosophy

Posted on 23/02/2013 by lexipenia

In my younger and more vulnerable years, before finding time to study certain works of philosophy, these books would glow with a mystic aura upon my mental, indeed upon my physical, shelves. They offered the promise of definitive, clear answers … Continue reading →

Posted in aesthetics, language, Lydia Goehr, Nelson Goodman, philosophy | 4 Comments