Ethics, Aesthetics and Contemporary Urbanism

Ethics, Aesthetics and Contemporary Urbanism Till Marita Kolla!!!!! Tom Nielsen The Regime of ¥€$ s 14, s 20 (4ggr), s 21 yen-tecken, euro-tecken, dollartecken n a model1 outlining the relation between contempo- an abundance of communication possibilities, and a rary urbanism and ethics, German philosopher Gernot labour market demanding flexibility and adaptability I Böhme uses the idea of a necessary distinction bet- makes the temporary, and in Kierkegaard’s definition, ween ethics and aesthetics that Søren Kierkegaard in- shallow aesthetic choice the only one possible in most troduced in his Enten-Eller (Either/Or) (1994 [1843]).2 life situations. Even in the dimensions of life that Kier- Böhme points to the fact that the clear differentia- kegaard identifies as the ones related most directly to tion between the ethical and the aesthetical way of life the ethical, namely professional life, and marriage. that Kierkegaard promoted, is evidently in contrast to This development has resulted in a culture where the dominant trend in contemporary philosophy. To- the aestheticisation of life and its physical surroun- day most ethics “presents itself as ethics of the good dings becomes meaningful in itself and replaces the life” (Böhme 2001: 1). This is an ethics based on aesthe- meaning that the earnest and personally binding atti- tics, which eradicates the Kantian distinction between tude could ascribe to the world. Böhme understands the the two that Kierkegaard radicalised in his philosophy. current situation like this: This is, Böhme claims, a consequence of ongoing We live in the consumer society, we live in the event so- modernization, and the related developments in eco- ciety, and that is why the adequate form of life is the nomics, culture, and technology. The life led today by aesthetic one. […] After the satisfaction of elementary people living in the expanding urban regions of the needs, at least we in the west today have entered into a world is very different from the life led by the bourge- phase of capitalism which one should sensibly call ‘aes- oisie inside the fortifications of 19th century Copen- thetic economy’. It is given the epithet ‘aesthetic’ becau- hagen, which made out the horizon and context for se the differentiating value, which is produced during Kierkegaard’s work. In the developed welfare-societies this capitalistic phase, is the staging-value. While, ac- an abundance of mass-produced consumer products, Tom Nielsen: Ethics, Aesthetics and Contemporary Urbanism 23 This idea has been a major inspiration for many post- cording to Marx, the utility value of a product equals modern theorists, the most influential probably being its usefulness for certain purposes, and the exchange the French philosopher Michel Foucault and the Ameri- value equals its saleability on the market, the staging can ‘New Pragmatist’ Richard Rorty. In Rorty’s thinking, value, however, is something else, sort of a product of the ideas of Nietzsche are related to the continuing both: The product gets its value from the contribution it renegotiation of the premise of life within shifting con- makes to the staging and raising of life. The staging-va- texts, and the resulting particularism that is the given lue has its origins in product aesthetics, i.e. in the special premise for the post-modern individual. The only fact shape, which the product is given, exceeding its utility, that post-modern man can relate to is the contingency in order to make it attractive in trade context. Special of life, the absence of clearly defined permanent mea- about the staging value is that the aesthetic outfit ning, and the absence of unquestionable goals. Each keeps its value in life context: Here it serves as outfit for life follows its own unique trajectory that can be radi- life itself. (Böhme 2003: 4) cally altered from one moment to another, as a conse- In the philosophical discourses developed in the quence of either ‘internal’ or ‘external’ circumstances 1960’s as part of what has later been known as post- that could not possibly have been foreseen. Rorty’s modernism, the aesthetic was given priority as op- idea of the complete lack of continuity and possibility posed to Kierkegaard’s prioritising of the ethical and of the earnest and engaging choice is precisely what religious. It became clear that the particularity in an Kierkegaard understood as characterising the aest- aesthetic perception of the world could be used as a hetic way of life. philosophical stronghold from which ‘modernity’ and Gernot Böhme thus points to a close relation bet- its Kantian inspired claims of universalism could be at- ween contemporary urban development, and the tacked. It was seen as a way of establishing a critical po- shift he identifies from a universalistic modern ethics sition from which the problems related to universalism to a particularistic post-modern aesthet/hics. This could be discussed critically. This has been labelled a is a model that in itself seems to be related to the new kind of ‘aesthet/hics’.3 Nietzschean idea of shifting eras dominated by either The merging of aesthetics and ethics that has oc- Apollonian or Dionysian thought. Understood within curred not only in philosophy but also in social theory this logic of Böhme, it is a shift from the Apollonian relates, as Böhme sees it, to developments in architec- modernist principles of urban planning that domina- ture and urbanism. The ‘good life’ has become the com- ted a major part of the 20th century, to the pluralistic fortable and intense life, and the ‘good city’ has become post-modern urbanism that has dominated the last the city that stages the shopping and events that are 30 years. A shift from ideals, order, principles and an the keys to achieving the good life (Böhme 2003). almost Kierkegaardian ethical earnestness in an at- Post-modern discussions of the shift in theory, tempt to deal with questions of urban development from a clear distinction between ethics and aesthe- and the modernisation of society – this seems to be the tics to a fusion between the two, can be traced back to attitude Böhme finds more attractive, to the contem- the shift in existential philosophy from Kierkegaard to porary hedonism, aestheticism and eclecticism of the Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche proposes, with his ‘aes- post-modern approach. A shift from the large new ur- thetics of self-creation’ that we do not understand the ban neighbourhoods elaborated over Corbusian stu- ‘ethicist’ and the ‘aesthete’ as stages of life separated by dies of geometry and the ‘play of architectural volumes an absolute choice, but rather as aspects of life united in the light’ and Cartesian grids dealing with ‘the social’ through individuals striving towards defining them- through zoning,5 to elaborated urban stage-designs selves as the central point of reference in the world. functioning and conceptualised as a backdrop for the In a popular understanding this is described as collective consumption of culture, lifestyle-products Nietzsche’s idea of ‘creating one’s life as a work of art’.4 and for the celebration of ‘publicness’, ‘collectiveness’ 24 Nordisk Arkitekturforskning 2004: 2 or just spare time. welfare state policy was being formulated as a re- Twentieth century urbanism in such a perspective sponse to the international economic crisis of the is understood as something that has changed from 1930’s that had resulted in mass-unemployment and a modern attitude based on the separation of ethics a set of related problems. Welfare state politics tried to and aesthetics in a way that made urban planning a implement a social safety system, equal rights to edu- discipline well suited to incorporate both ethical and cation and a democratisation of industrial production aesthetical considerations, to a post- or late-modern (Christiansen 1996: 7), as a means of creating stable aff- attitude in which the reflection of the economically sti- luent societies. A politics of redistribution based on a mulated aesthetisation process and the philosophical moral vision of equality and justice. promotion of an aesthet/hics, makes a differentiation Central to the implementation of the welfare state impossible. vision was an economic policy inspired by the econo- This is a very crude generalisation that does not mist J.M. Keynes’ ideas of a state-regulated capitalism. seem to fit very well with the actual development This economical theory was developed by Keynes as a within urban theory and practices of urbanism that reaction to the more or less unregulated market eco- has taken place in the ‘postmodern’ period. nomy that had lead to the international economic The argument and theoretical idea of a direct rela- crisis around 1930. Keynes pointed to the fact that tion between post-modern ethics and post-modern by promoting public spending and controlling inte- urbanism presented by Böhme in the paper “Ethics or rest rates, taxes and the surplus or deficit of the state Aesthetics in Architecture” make an excellent starting budget through an economical policy, states would point for a discussion of the relation between ethics, ae- be able to both stimulate and control economic deve- sthetics and contemporary urban development which lopments and avoid bankruptcies and mass unemploy- is the objective of this article. ment. As a consequence of this kind of policy, the Da- This article seeks to expand and nuance the discu- nish state engaged in the construction of a modern ssion by differentiating the notion of ‘post-modern industrial society, which could increase the earnings urbanism’. In doing this it questions whether urban of the country, as well as a large administrative sector development and ethics is directly interrelated in the with well-paid employees that could buy and consu- way Böhme has suggested, and accordingly proposes me the products produced by the industry.

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