Reason and Horror: Critical Theory, Democracy and Aesthetic Individuality

BOOK COVER......Page 1
HALF-TITLE......Page 2
TITLE......Page 3
COPYRIGHT......Page 4
DEDICATION......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 6
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 12
ONE INTRODUCTION: REASON AND HORROR......Page 14
INDIVIDUALITY BEFORE THE HOLOCAUST......Page 15
Formal and Aesthetic Reason......Page 16
Aesthetic Reason, Aesthetic Individuality, Aesthetic Sensibility......Page 18
Reading Dialectic of Enlightenment......Page 20
Aesthetic Individuality and the Aesthetics of Tragedy......Page 24
From a Genealogy of Reason to Aesthetic Theory......Page 26
SURFACES......Page 27
Individuality as an Aesthetic Problem......Page 28
Adorno: A Sensibility to Violence, Creativity without Form—Nietzsche: Creativity with Form, without a Sensibility to Violence......Page 29
Whitman: The Aesthetic Problem from the Point of View of the Artist (the Creator)......Page 32
Aesthetic Individuality in Democratic America......Page 36
INDIVIDUALITY AFTER THE HOLOCAUST......Page 39
TWO REASON AS A “MURDEROUS PRINCIPLE”......Page 42
DIFFERENCE AND THE BIRTH OF THINKING......Page 43
DIFFERENCE AND MAGICAL THINKING......Page 47
DIFFERENCE AND MYTHICAL THINKING......Page 49
DIFFERENCE AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF MODERN TIMES......Page 54
RHETORICAL OVERLAY VERSUS LINEAR HISTORICAL NARRATIVE......Page 65
INDIVIDUALS IN POSSESSION OF OURSELVES......Page 68
A Conflict of the Faculties, Its Hierarchical Resolution, and Identity as Self-Contradiction......Page 69
Self-Identity and the Triumph of Formal Reason......Page 71
An Ideal Form of Aesthetic Individuality......Page 73
Methodological Reflections on the Possibility of Aesthetic Individuality......Page 75
Modern Subjectivity and Artless Thinking......Page 78
Aesthetic Individuality as Art......Page 80
The Task of Translation......Page 82
Sublation......Page 84
Forgetting and the Rise of Enlightenment as a System of Domination......Page 86
The Autonomy of Formal Reason and Social Order......Page 88
Genealogy, the Universalization of Formal Reason, and Private Property......Page 90
Capitalism and Violence to Difference......Page 92
“SPREAD OVER POSTERITY LIKE A SHADOW THAT KEEPS GROWING IN THE EVENING SUN”......Page 98
The Birth of Tragedy and the Concept of Aesthetic Individuality......Page 99
Analogy from the Apollinian and the Dionysian: Art Deities and Forms of Thought......Page 100
Analogy from the Greek Dionysian Festival: Aesthetic Form and Forms of Thought......Page 105
Analogy from Attic Tragedy: The Ideal of Aesthetic Individuality......Page 110
Analogy from “Aesthetic Socratism:” Socratic Reason and Enlightenment as “Murderous Principles”......Page 117
RECONCILIATION AND THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN KANT AND HEGEL, OR HEGEL WITHOUT THE ABSOLUTE, KANT WITHOUT…......Page 119
AESTHETIC INDIVIDUALITY AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWS......Page 127
FIVE RECOVERING AESTHETIC INDIVIDUALITY FROM ART: AESTHETIC REASON IN ADORNO’S AESTHETIC THEORY......Page 130
THE AESTHETICS OF DARKNESS......Page 133
Beauty and the Unknown......Page 135
Trace and the Unknown......Page 137
Rationality, Mimesis, and the Unknown......Page 138
Spirit and the Unknown......Page 140
Expression and the Unknown......Page 142
REASON AND DARKNESS......Page 143
NO TRESPASSING......Page 146
THE GREAT DIVIDE......Page 148
“A MUSIC WHOSE SOUL KNOWS HOW TO ROAM AND BE AT HOME AMONG GREAT BEAUTIFUL SOLITARY BEASTS OF PREY”......Page 150
NIETZSCHE’S DREAM, ADORNO’S NIGHTMARE......Page 157
THE MARRIAGE OF LIGHT AND DARK......Page 158
UP FROM THE DEPTHS, ONTO THE SURFACES OF THE WORLD......Page 160
NIETZSCHE’S PURE SURFACES......Page 161
THE CREATIVE WILL AND ITS DESTRUCTION OF DEPTH......Page 168
INTO THE UNKNOWN......Page 176
Nonidentity and the Unknown......Page 177
Perspectivism and the Unknown......Page 181
God and the Unknown......Page 182
AN ETHIC OF APPEARANCES......Page 184
Mystery, Wonder, and Delight in Appearances......Page 185
Appearance and Difference......Page 189
The Sufficiency, Equality, and Uniqueness of Appearances......Page 191
An Intimacy with Appearances......Page 194
SEVEN INDIVIDUALITY AS A POETIC FORM OF LIFE......Page 197
A POETIC FORM OF LIFE......Page 198
EVERY EXISTENCE HAS ITS IDIOM......Page 200
The Distant Brought Near......Page 203
REPRESENTING A WORLD......Page 206
Representing Surfaces Descriptively......Page 207
Representing Surfaces Metaphorically......Page 214
PRESENTING A WORLD......Page 218
Forcing Surfaces and Depths......Page 221
Attachment and Self-Creativity......Page 226
Discontinuity......Page 230
A Constitutive Interest in Difference......Page 234
The Aesthetic Value of Surfaces and Nietzsche’s Marriage of Light and Dark......Page 237
EIGHTH DEMOCRACY AS AN AESTHETIC FORM OF LIFE......Page 243
TECHNOLOGY, MODERNITY, AND DIFFERENCE......Page 244
DEMOCRACY, MODERNITY, AND DIFFERENCE......Page 245
DEMOCRACY, DIFFERENCE, AND POETRY......Page 248
DEMOCRACY AND AESTHETIC EDUCATION......Page 250
DEMOCRATIC TIME, DEMOCRATIC SPACE......Page 253
NINE AESTHETIC INDIVIDUALITY AS A DEMOCRATIC ACHIEVEMENT......Page 261
TOCQUEVILLE’S AESTHETIC SENSIBILITY......Page 263
TOCQUEVILLE’S BLINDNESS TO DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCE......Page 266
The Large Differences of Aristocratic Societies......Page 270
The Small Differences of Democratic Society......Page 276
THE AESTHETICS OF SMALL DIFFERENCES......Page 284
Democracy’s Mimetic Dimension—Self-Creativity and Aesthetic Presentation as Imitation, or Individuality From the Point of View of the Artist (the Creator)......Page 285
Representing Difference: A Sensibility to Violence in the Aesthetics of Individuality......Page 296
Individuality’s Orientation to the Surfaces of Small Differences......Page 298
Individuality’s All-Inclusive Orientation to Small Differences......Page 299
Individuality’s Orientation to the Equality, Sufficiency, and Uniqueness of Small Differences......Page 300
Individuality’s Receptivity to Small Differences......Page 301
Attachment and Intimacy......Page 303
Individuality’s Indifference to Difference in Its Depths, the Unknown, and the Indeterminacy of Surfaces......Page 306
The Logic of Identity “as” Difference......Page 310
AESTHETIC INDIVIDUALITY AS A DEMOCRATIC ACHIEVEMENT......Page 312
TEN CONCLUSION: INDIVIDUALITY AFTER THE HOLOCAUST......Page 314
A MORALLY DISTINCTIVE DEMOCRATIC INDIVIDUALITY......Page 315
THE MORAL AND THE AESTHETIC......Page 321
NOTES......Page 325
INDEX......Page 344