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Diotima's Children

German Aesthetic Rationalism from Leibniz to Lessing

Frederick C Beiser author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:3rd Nov '11

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Diotima's Children cover

Diotima's Children is a re-examination of the rationalist tradition of aesthetics which prevailed in Germany in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century. It is partly an historical survey of the central figures and themes of this tradition But it is also a philosophical defense of some of its leading ideas, viz., that beauty plays an integral role in life, that aesthetic pleasure is the perception of perfection, that aesthetic rules are inevitable and valuable. It shows that the criticisms of Kant and Nietzsche of this tradition are largely unfounded. The rationalist tradition deserves re-examination because it is of great historical significance, marking the beginning of modern aesthetics, art criticism, and art history.

This book represents a revolution in the historiography of German aesthetics and philosophy, shaped and canonized since Kant and Hegel. However, its provocative statements are simply the result of carefully rereading the long-dismissed pre-Kantian thinkers and of trying to understand them from the perspective of the questions which originally motivated their thinking. The result is the most informative and comprehensive presentation of German aesthetics and philosophy from Leibniz to Kant available today, one that can finally replace Beck's Kant and his Predecessors. * Ursula Goldenbaum, Journal of the History of Philosophy *

ISBN: 9780199694655

Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 16mm

Weight: 440g

306 pages