Diotima's Children: German Aesthetic Rationalism From Leibniz To Lessing University Press Scholarship Online

This Text Presents A Comprehensive Re-examination Of The Rationalist Tradition Of Aesthetics As It Prevailed In Germany In The Late 17th And Early 18th Centuries. This Tradition Is Of The Greatest Historical Importance Because It Gave Birth To Modern Aesthetics, Art Criticism, And Art History. Reappraising Aesthetic Rationalism -- A Glorious Relic? -- Theory Of Aesthetic Judgment -- The Rationalist Aesthetic -- The Meaning Of Rules -- Kant's Paltry Polemic -- Diotima Versus Dionysus -- The Challenge Of Irrationalism -- Gadamer And The Rationalist Tradition -- Leibniz And The Roots Of Aesthetic Rationalism -- The Grandfather's Strange Case -- Theory Of Beauty -- Analysis Of Sense -- The Classical Trinity -- Wolff And The Birth Of Aesthetic Rationalism -- Wolff And The Aesthetic Tradition -- Theory Of The Arts -- Psychology -- Theory Of Beauty -- Foundations Of Neo-classicism -- Gottsched And The High Noon Of Rationalism -- Herr Professor Gottsched's Peruke -- The Importance Of Taste -- Defense Of Tragedy -- Theory Of Taste -- Poetics -- The Rules -- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde -- The Poets' War -- Leipzig Versus Zurich -- Misreadings Of The Dispute -- The Point In Dispute -- Baumgarten's Science Of Aesthetics -- The Father Of Aesthetics -- A Philosophical Poetics -- A Science Of Beauty -- Theory Of Sensation -- Analysis Of Beauty -- Status Of Aesthetics -- An Ambiguous Legacy -- Winckelmann And Neo-classicism -- Winckelmann As Philosopher -- Historical Influence -- Imitating The Ancients -- A Neo-classical Aesthetic -- Ancients Versus Moderns -- Aesthetic Theory -- Painting And Allegory -- Eros And Dionysus -- Mendelssohn's Defense Of Reason -- The Guardian Of Enlightenment -- The Analysis Of Sensation -- The Grin Of Silenus -- Second Thoughts -- Taming The Sublime -- Reckoning With Burke -- Encounter With Jean-jacques -- The Claims Of Genius -- First Clash With Hamann -- Abelard And Fulbert's Brief Spat -- The Three-faculty Theory -- Lessing And The Reformation Of Aesthetic Rationalism -- Lessing And The Rationalist Tradition -- Genius And Rules -- The Irrationality Of Genius -- Rationalism And Sentimentalism In Lessing's Ethics -- Laokoon : Thesis And Inductive Argument -- Laokoon : The Deductive Argument -- Laokoon : Its Hidden Agenda. Frederick C. Beiser. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.
Diotima's Children is a re-examination of the rationalist tradition of aesthetics which prevailed in Germany in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century. It is partly an historical survey of the central figures and themes of this tradition But it is also a philosophical defense of some of its leading ideas, viz., that beauty plays an integral role in life, that aesthetic pleasure is the perception of perfection, that aesthetic rules are inevitable and valuable. It shows that the criticisms of Kant and Nietzsche of this tradition are largely unfounded. The rationalist tradition deserves re-examination because it is of great historical significance, marking the beginning of modern aesthetics, art criticism, and art history.