Aestheticizing of Reality – The Result of Prosperity
or the Values Collapse? Analysis and Criticism of Wolfgang Welsch’s Views Regarding the Aestheticizing Process Cover Image

Estetyzacja rzeczywistości – skutek dobrobytu czy upadek wartości? Analiza i krytyka poglądów Wolfganga Welsch’a względem procesu estetyzacji
Aestheticizing of Reality – The Result of Prosperity or the Values Collapse? Analysis and Criticism of Wolfgang Welsch’s Views Regarding the Aestheticizing Process

Author(s): Kamil Kociołek
Subject(s): Philosophy, Philosophical Traditions, Existentialism, Analytic Philosophy
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
Keywords: aestheticization; beauty; aesthetic; aesthetical values; Wolfgang Welsch; welfare; metaphysic

Summary/Abstract: The article is a polemic with Wolfgang Welsch’s criticism of the aestheticization process presented in his article entitled Aestheticization Processes. Phenomena, Distinctions and Prospects. Its purpose is to show that arguments suggesting a negative assessment of this phenomenon are unfounded and the aestheticization should be rather treated as a sign of human civilization welfare which revealing favourable perspectives than as a problem threatens a degeneration or the fall of values. In the first part of the text, I present the definition of aestheticization and some examples of it. Next, I analyse the potentially negative consequences of this process and fears about its further development pointed out by Welsch. I argue that the aestheticization is a positive phenomenon because people may care of aesthetic values only after satisfying more basic needs. The real consequence of this process is a better understanding of the reality, as the aestheticization emphasizes its immanent susceptibility to modelling which simultaneously enhance a possibilities of influencing on it by the human will. Therefore, instead of a danger for humanity,

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 52
  • Page Range: 37-54
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish