The emergence of modern aesthetic theory : religion and morality in Enlightenment Germany and Scotland / Simon Grote.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grote, Simon, 1979- author.

Series:

Ideas in context.

Ideas in context

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aesthetics, Modern--History.

Aesthetics, Modern.

Enlightenment--Germany.

Enlightenment.

Enlightenment--Scotland.

Ethics--Germany.

Ethics.

Ethics--Scotland.

Germany--Religion.

Germany.

Scotland--Religion.

Scotland.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 280 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Summary:

Broad in its geographic scope and yet grounded in original archival research, this book situates the inception of modern aesthetic theory - the philosophical analysis of art and beauty - in theological contexts that are crucial to explaining why it arose. Simon Grote presents seminal aesthetic theories of the German and Scottish Enlightenments as outgrowths of a quintessentially Enlightenment project: the search for a natural 'foundation of morality' and a means of helping naturally self-interested human beings transcend their own self-interest. This conclusion represents an important alternative to the standard history of aesthetics as a series of preludes to the achievements of Immanuel Kant, as well as a reinterpretation of several canonical figures in the German and Scottish Enlightenments. It also offers a foundation for a transnational history of the Enlightenment without the French philosophes at its centre, while solidly endorsing historians' growing reluctance to call the Enlightenment a secularising movement.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 24 Oct 2017).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-50613-5

1-108-51358-1

1-108-51507-X

1-108-51656-4

1-108-52401-X

1-316-27555-8

1-108-51805-2