CULTURA CULTURA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of 2013 Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 2 2013 Vol X No 2 ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro- mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempo rary world. CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY CULTURE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY INTERNATIONAL ISBN 978-3-631-64973-2 www.peterlang.com CULTURA 2013_264973_VOL_10_No2_GR_A5Br.indd 1 10.01.14 KW 02 15:23 CULTURA CULTURA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of 2013 Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 2 2013 Vol X No 2 ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro- mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempo rary world. CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY CULTURE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY INTERNATIONAL www.peterlang.com CULTURA 2013_264973_VOL_10_No2_GR_A5Br.indd 1 10.01.14 KW 02 15:23 CULTURA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology E-ISSN (Online): 2065-5002 ISSN (Print): 1584-1057 Advisory Board Prof. Dr. David Altman, Instituto de Ciencia Política, Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile Prof. Emeritus Dr. Horst Baier, University of Konstanz, Germany Prof. Dr. David Cornberg, University Ming Chuan, Taiwan Prof. Dr. Paul Cruysberghs, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Prof. Dr. Nic Gianan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines Prof. Dr. Marco Ivaldo, Department of Philosophy “A. Aliotta”, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy Prof. Dr. Michael Jennings, Princeton University, USA Prof. Dr. Maximiliano E. Korstanje, University of Palermo, Argentina Prof. Dr. Richard L. Lanigan, Southern Illinois University, USA Prof. Dr. Christian Lazzeri, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France Prof. Dr. Massimo Leone, University of Torino, Italy Prof. Dr. Asunción López-Varela Azcárate, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain Prof. Dr. Christian Möckel, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Prof. Dr. Devendra Nath Tiwari, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India Prof. Dr. José María Paz Gago, University of Coruña, Spain Prof. Dr. Mario Perniola, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy Prof. Dr. Traian D. Stănciulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania Prof. Dr. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Purdue University & Ghent University Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief: Co-Editors: Prof. dr. Nicolae Râmbu Prof. dr. Aldo Marroni Faculty of Philosophy and Social- Dipartimento di Lettere, Arti e Scienze Sociali Political Sciences Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti Scalo, Italy B-dul Carol I, nr. 11, 700506 Iasi, Romania [email protected] [email protected] PD Dr. Till Kinzel Executive Editor: Englisches Seminar Dr. Simona Mitroiu Technische Universität Braunschweig, Human Sciences Research Department Bienroder Weg 80, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University 38106 Braunschweig, Germany Lascar Catargi, nr. 54, 700107 Iasi, Romania [email protected] [email protected] Editorial Assistant: Dr. Marius Sidoriuc Designer: Aritia Poenaru Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology Vol. 10, No. 2 (2013) Editor-in-Chief Nicolae Râmbu Guest Editor: Prof. Aldo Marroni Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Umschlagabbildung: © Aritia Poenaru ISSN 2065-5002 ISBN 978-3-631-64973-2 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2014 All rights reserved. Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. www.peterlang.com CONTENTS AESTHETICS VALUES AND THE PROCESS OF CIVILIZATION Aldo Marroni 7 The Aesthetic Crisis of Society Evan Osborne 23 Art as a Capital Asset Mario Perniola 41 Knowledge, Power and Politic-Cultural Civilization Geoffrey Skoll 49 The Art of Living Together: How Artistic Work Makes the Moral Bonds of a Community Paolo Bartoloni 71 The Aesthetics of Renunciation, and the Irregularities of the 20th Century Montserrat Martínez García 93 A Panoramic Overview of British Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics Pedro Sargento 113 New Materialism and Neutralized Subjectivity. A Cultural Renewal? VARIA Lingling Peng & Yang Geng 127 Cultural Semiosis in Artistic Chinese Calligraphy Janez Strehovec 141 Algorithmic Culture and E-Literary Text Semiotics A.A. Gede Rai Remawa & Imam Santosa & Biranul Anas Zaman 157 Aesthetic and Space Concept of Visual Composition in Interior and Architecture of Bali Madya Dwelling Joseph S. Fulda 173 Value-Sensitive Design as an Ongoing Process of Market Discovery 10.5840/cultura201310215 Paolo Bartoloni / The Aesthetics of Renunciation Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 10(2)/2013: 93–112 possible, through which synchrony is introduced, and it is on the foundation of syn- chrony that the essential dialect is then erected, that in which the Other may discov- A Panoramic Overview of British Eighteenth-Century er itself as the Other of the Other.” The Ethics. 66). Aesthetics 29 Ibidem. “(…) das Ding est justement au centre au sens qu’il est exclu.” 87. (“(...) das Ding is at the center only in the sense that it is excluded.” 71. Montserrat Martínez García Facultad de Filología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Avd. Séneca 2, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040, Madrid, Spain [email protected] Abstract. The aim of this paper is not to focus on a particular thematic issue of Aes- thetics, offering an exhaustive approach of it, but to display a broader map allowing to capture the essence of this topic from an overall perspective. To achieve it, I have paid attention to a number of points that will help to place Aesthetics in historical terms in the context of 18th century Great Britain. In this vein, I have addressed cer- tain pillars deemed crucial in understanding Aesthetics, such as the socio-historical background in which it emerged, the meaning of this field of study, its main theore- ticians and its three most important aesthetic categories. Finally, I close the paper by drawing some brief conclusions. Keywords: Aesthetics, 18th century, sublime, picturesque, taste. CONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE SUBJECT MATTER The eighteenth century was par excellence the century of taste, an age in which Aesthetics and consequently the theory of taste reached its apex in Britain; the period in which we witness the transition from objective to subjective and relative notions of beauty and taste. The seed of this pro- cess was rooted in the emergence of a fresh anthropological paradigm, provoked by multiple factors of diverse nature. The up-to-then 17th century predominantly religious culture was cor- nered by an epistemology pushing man to find within himself the sources of knowledge, to ponder over the immanent consciousness of one´s own existence against an outward reality. This new conception and construction of the self was fostered by a reunderstanding and rethinking of human knowledge triggered by the scientific revolution and discover- ies of Galileo (1564�1642) and Newton (1642�1727), alongside Des- cartes (1596�1650), Hobbes (1588�1679) and Locke’s (1632�1704) philosophical and psychological deliberations. Rationalism and Empiri- cism brought with it a schism between the arts and the sciences, the divi- sion of the European republic of letters between supporters of the An- cients and the Moderns, and the disjuncture of metaphysics and religious 92 93 Montserrat Martínez García / British Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics cosmology prevalent since classical times (Townsend, 2006: xxv). As ad- verted, the normative model of human self-perception changed beyond all recognition at the beginning of the 18th century. This ontological up- heaval had its origin in the changeover from a dualistic to an integrated concept of the brotherhood between body and mind. As it happens with all important processes, this reassessment had to face detractors who were still reluctant to abandon the old paradigm; one of these, Timothy Nourse (1636�1699), insisted on regarding man as composed of two parts in his opening lines of A Discourse Upon the Nature and Faculties of Man (1686) (Schlaeger, 1999: 77�80). The reconsideration of the relevance of psycho-somatic