In this paper the speaker will be examining the role of aesthetic experience in the general account of the relation between mind and world in Kant (briefly) and Adorno (more extensively). In aesthetic experience what is shown is how conceptual mindedness depends upon the non conceptual. One central line of inquiry will be gauging how the shift from a focus from the primacy of natural beauty (Kant) to the primacy of the modernist artwork registers a shift in the understanding of the role of the non conceptual in conceptual meaning.
We are now approaching the 50th anniversary of Aesthetic Theory (first published posthumously in 1970), the final masterpiece of the philosopher and social theorist Theodor W. Adorno. This lecture contributes to the semester-long series of scholarly presentations that reflect on the legacy and actuality of this major work.
