The book aims at a new exposition of the basic idea of modern
aesthetics by way of a reconstruction of its genesis in the 18th
century, between Baumgarten's Aesthetics and Kant's Critique of
Judgment. The claim is that the historical invention of aesthetics
was not about expanding the range of legitimate objects of
philosophical inquiry-these objects all existed before aesthetics.
Rather, aesthetics, by introducing the category of the "aesthetic,"
fundamentally redefined these objects. But most importantly, the
reconstruction of the historical genesis of aesthetics shows that
the introduction of the category of the "aesthetic" required
nothing less than a transformation of the fundamental terms of
philosophy. What begins in-or as-aesthetics is modern philosophy.
More precisely, Force shows that in-or as-aesthetics modern
philosophy began twice, in two different, even opposite forms. On
the one hand, Baumgarten's Aesthetics is organized around the new
concept of the "subject": the concept of the subject as the
totality of faculties, as the agent defined by his capabilities; of
the subject as one who is able. By conceiving sensible cognition
and (re)presentation as the exercise of subjective faculties
acquired in practice, Baumgarten has framed the modern conception
of human practices (and of philosophy as the inquiry into the
conditions that enable the success of these practices). That is why
aesthetics, the reflection upon the aesthetic, is a central pillar
of modern philosophy: in aesthetics, the philosophy of the subject
or of the subject's faculties assures itself of its own
possibility. Yet here, in the aesthetic and the reflection on it,
the aesthetics "in the Baumgartian manner" (Herder), as the theory
of the sensible faculties of the subject, at once faces a different
aesthetics: the aesthetics of force, which conceives the aesthetic
not as sensible cognition but instead as a play of
expression-propelled by a force that, rather than being exercised,
like a faculty, in practices, realizes itself; a force that does
not recognize or represent anything because it is "obscure" and
unconscious; a force not of the subject but of man as distinct from
the same man as subject. The aesthetics of force is a science of
the nature of man: of his aesthetic nature as distinct from the
culture, acquired by practice, of his practices. That is the
hypothesis the six chapters of Force intend to unfold. The first
chapter, analyzing the rationalist concept of the sensible,
recollects the point of departure of aesthetics: the sensible is
that which is without determinable definition or measure. The
second chapter reconstructs Baumgarten's aesthetics of sensible
cognition as a theory of the subject and its faculties. The third
and fourth chapters draw on writings by Herder, Sulzer, and
Mendelssohn to develop the basic motifs of a counter-model, an
aesthetics of force: the aesthetic, as the operation of an
"obscure" force, is a performance without generality, divorced from
all norm, law, and purpose-a play. And the aesthetic, as the
pleasure of self-reflection, is a process of the transformation of
the subject, of its faculties and practices-a process of
aestheticization. The aesthetics of force founds an anthropology of
difference: between force and faculty, between man and subject. The
two concluding chapters explore the consequences: for the idea of
philosophical aesthetics; and for ethics as the theory of the good.
The fifth chapter engages Kant to show that an aesthetics conceived
as an aesthetics of force is the scene of an irresolvable
contention: aesthetics unfolds within philosophy the contention
between philosophy and aesthetic experience. The sixth chapter
draws on Nietzsche to demonstrate the ethical import of aesthetic
experience as the experience of the play of force: it teaches us to
distinguish between action and life; it teaches the other good of
life. - "The last word of aesthetics is human freedom."
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