Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T17:57:58.068Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Aesthetics and Bildung

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Pauline von Bonsdorff*
Affiliation:
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
*
Pauline von Bonsdorff, University of Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, FI-40014, Finland. Email: pauline.v.bonsdorff@jyu.fi

Abstract

The article approaches the educational potential of aesthetics and the arts by reviving the notion of Bildung and suggesting an interpretation that emphasizes both its social character and the role of artworks and other aesthetic expressions. Bildung is a dialogic process where human relationships are crucial both for the exchange and the birth of insights. Artworks are described as images (Bilde), which act as intermediaries and points of reference in expressing, communicating and negotiating cultural values. In developing the argument, Immanuel Kant’s analysis of aesthetic judgment is read together with his ideas on enlightenment, highlighting the social and political character of judgment. Wilhelm von Humboldt’s discussion of the aesthetic and social dimensions of Bildung provides another starting point. Two examples of contemporary artistic processes are used to indicate the educational and political relevance of art in our time.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arendt, Hannah (1960) Vita Activa. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah (1982) Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy, ed. and with an interpretive essay by Ronald Beiner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamford, Anne (2006) The Wow Factor. Global Research Compendium on the Impact of Arts in Education. Münster: Waxmann.Google Scholar
Barenboim, Daniel, Said, Edward W (2004) Parallels and Paradoxes. Explorations in Music and Society, edited and with a preface by Guzelimian, Ara. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Biesta, Gert J J (2006) Beyond Learning. Democratic Education for a Human Future. Boulder/London: Paradigm Publishers.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1979) La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Minuit.Google Scholar
Crowther, Paul (2004) ‘Normativity, not Cultural Theory: Aesthetics in the Age of Global Consumerism,’ in Erjavec, A (ed.) International Yearbook of Aesthetics. Aesthetics and/as Globalization, 8: 2942; www2.eur.nl/fw/hyper/IAA/.Google Scholar
Crowther, Paul (2010) The Kantian Aesthetic. From Knowledge to the Avant-Gar de. Oxford/New York: Oxford UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darsø, Lotte (2004) Artful Creation – Learning Tales of Arts in Business. Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur.Google Scholar
Dissanayake, Ellen (1995) Homo Aestheticus. Where Art Comes From and Why. Seattle/London: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Docherty, Thomas (2003) ‘Aesthetic Education and the Demise of Experience,’ in Joughin, J J, Malpas, S (eds) The New Aestheticism, pp. 2335. Manchester/New York: Manchester UP.Google Scholar
Dufrenne, Mikel (1992) Phénoménologie de l’expérience esthétique. Paris: PUF.Google Scholar
Dutton, Denis (2009) The Art Instinct. Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution. New York, Berlin, London: Bloomsbury Press.Google Scholar
Escoubas, Éliane (2004) L’Esthétique. Paris: Ellipses.Google Scholar
Helander, Karin, Osten, Suzanne (2008) ‘Konstnärlig barnteater – en dialog om betydelsen av scenkonst för barn,’ in Juncker, B (ed.) Børn & Kultur – det æstetiskes betydning?, www.bin-norden.net/?downlo-ad=3binkh.pdf.Google Scholar
Hollo, J A (1959) Kasvatuksen teoria. Johdantoa yleiseen kasvatusoppiin. Porvoo, Helsinki: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö.Google Scholar
Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1903) ‘Theorie der Bildung des Menschen. Bruchstück’ [1793], Gesammelte Schriften, Band 1, pp. 282287. Berlin: B. Behr's Verlag.Google Scholar
Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1904a) ‘Ästhetische Versuche. Erster Teil: Über Goethes Hermann und Dorothea’ [1797–1798], Gesammelte Schriften, Band 2, pp. 113323. Berlin: B. Behr's Verlag.Google Scholar
Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1904b) ‘Über den Geist der Menschheit’ [1797], Gesammelte Schriften Band 2, pp. 324–34. Berlin: B. Behr's Verlag.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1784) ‘Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?’ Berlinische Monatsschrift: 481494, www.uni-potsdam.de/u/philosophie/texte/kant/aufklaer.htm.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1990) Kritik der Urteilskraft [1790]. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag.Google Scholar
Kester, Grant H (2004) Conversation Pieces. Community + Communication in Modern Art. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1995) ‘Éloge de la philosophie,’ in Éloge de la philosophie et autres essais, pp. 1369. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Morgan, Diane (2000) Kant Trouble. The Obscurities of the Enlightened. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mueller-Vollmer, Kurt (2007) ‘Wilhelm von Humboldt,’ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, plato.stanford.edu/entries/wilhelm-humboldt/.Google Scholar
Nuissl, Ekkehard (2010) ‘Bildung,’ European Association for the Education of Adults, www.eaea.org/index.php?k=15098.Google Scholar
Pillow, Kirk (2000) Sublime Understanding. Aesthetic Reflection in Kant and Hegel. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Prange, Klaus (2004) Bildung: a Paradigm Regained,’ European Educational Research Journal 3(2): 501509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar