Hilgers - Aesthetic disinterestedness: art, experience, and the self

Hilgerss book is a major new contribution to a topic that is often too quickly dismissed in current debates about the nature of aesthetic experience, namely the historical and contemporary importance of the concept of disinterestedness.

Jane Kneller, Colorado State University, USA

The notion of disinterestedness is often conceived of as antiquated or ideological. In spite of this, Hilgers argues that one cannot reject it if one wishes to understand the nature of art. He claims that an artwork typically asks a person to adopt a disinterested attitude towards what it shows, and that the effect of such an adoption is that it makes the person temporarily lose the sense of herself, while enabling her to gain a sense of the other. Due to an artworks particular wealth, multiperspectivity, and dialecticity, the engagement with it cannot culminate in the construction of world-views, but must initiate a process of self-critical thinking, which is a precondition of real self-determination. Ultimately, then, the aesthetic experience of art consists of a dynamic process of losing the sense of oneself, while gaining a sense of the other, and of achieving selfhood. In his book, Hilgers spells out the nature of this process by means of rethinking Kants and Schopenhauers aesthetic theories in light of more recent developments in philosophyspecifically in hermeneutics, critical theory, and analytic philosophyand within the arts themselvesspecifically within film and performance art.

Thomas Hilgers finished his doctoral dissertation in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010. Afterwards, he was a research associate at the Free University Berlin, the Kunstakademie Dsseldorf, and Columbia University. Currently, he is a lecturer in philosophy at the Humboldt University Berlin.

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88Aesthetic Disinterestedness

Art, Experience, and the Self

Thomas Hilgers

Thomas Hilgers

First published 2017
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Hilgers, Thomas W., 1943 author.

Title: Aesthetic disinterestedness : art, experience, and the self / by Thomas Hilgers.

Description: New York : Routledge, [2016] | Series: Routledge studies in contemporary philosophy ; 88 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016036039 | ISBN 9781138905009 (hardback : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Aesthetics. | Experience. | Art criticism. | Objectivity. | Self (Philosophy)

Classification: LCC BH301.E8 H55 2016 | DDC 111/.85dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016036039

ISBN: 978-1-138-90500-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-69608-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

To my parents,
Monika and Karl-Heinz Hilgers

This book is based on my doctoral dissertation, which I began in September of 2008. I am most grateful to my advisors from the University of Pennsylvania, Paul Guyer and Elisabeth Camp, who contributed a great deal to the realization of my project. During my time as a research associate at the Collaborative Research Center 626 (Free University Berlin) and the Priority Program 1688 (Kunstakademie Dsseldorf) from January 2011 until August 2015, I worked continuously on this project. This work culminated in a complete revision of my thesisa revision that often had the character of writing an entirely new book. A one-year fellowship from the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in North America (Columbia University) allowed me finally to finish my project on aesthetic disinterestedness. I cannot thank in name all my teachers, friends, and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, the Free University Berlin, the Kunstakademie, Columbia University, and other institutions who helped me in the preparation of this book. Nevertheless, I want to mention a few people who played an exceptionally important role. I would like to thank Kathleen Harbin, who proofread and commented on the penultimate manuscript in its entirety. I would also like to thank, in their order of appearance within the story of writing this book, Daniel Rothe, Stefan Klusemann, Nol Carroll, Uygar Abaci, Jakob Scherer, Veronica Muriel, Gunnar Hindrichs, Gertrud Koch, Georg W. Bertram, Daniel Martin Feige, Dorothea von Hantelmann, Benjamin Wihstutz, Johannes Lang, Ludger Schwarte, David Freedberg, Lydia Goehr, Emanuele Coccia, Gundula Kreuzer, Christine Jeanneret, Emmanuel Alloa, and Martin Seel.

Having aesthetic experiences is an important aspect of leading a human life. We have such experiences when we feel stimulated by the sights and sounds of some neighborhood or natural environment, when feeling drawn to the scent of one person or repelled by the scent of another, when enjoying some food, disliking some drink, appreciating the screening of some film, hating the look of some painting, and so on. At times, we go far out of our way in order to have, or to avoid having, a particular kind of aesthetic experience. Some of us, for instance, spend significant amounts of money on buying certain culinary or lifestyle products, including foods, clothes, jewelry, furniture, various electronic devices, and cars. Others travel significant distances in order to enjoy a certain landscape, urban space, cultural event, dance party, or artwork. If a person lacks the means to do anything of this kind, she will be rather frustrated. This indicates that we not only have aesthetic experiences, but also value having, at least, some of them. Clearly, then, the aesthetic dimension of our lives matters to us.