The Emergence of Modern Aesthetic Theory: Religion and Morality in Enlightenment Germany and Scotland (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781107527706)

Broad in its geographic scope and yet grounded in original archival research, this book situates the inception of modern aesthetic theory - the philosophical analysis of art and beauty - in theological contexts that are crucial to explaining why it arose. Simon Grote presents seminal aesthetic theories of the German and Scottish Enlightenments as outgrowths of a quintessentially Enlightenment project: the search for a natural 'foundation of morality' and a means of helping naturally self-interested human beings transcend their own self-interest. This conclusion represents an important alternative to the standard history of aesthetics as a series of preludes to the achievements of Immanuel Kant, as well as a reinterpretation of several canonical figures in the German and Scottish Enlightenments. It also offers a foundation for a transnational history of the Enlightenment without the French philosophes at its centre, while solidly endorsing historians' growing reluctance to call the Enlightenment a secularising movement.

Author: Simon Grote
ISBN-10: 1107527708
ISBN-13: 9781107527706
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/28/2019
Pages: 307
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.91lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.65d