This study starts with the critical concern that various negative effects today are resulted in the overflow of sensibility. And since we believe the solution lies in the balance between reason and sensibility, the goal of the study is to provide phil ...
This study starts with the critical concern that various negative effects today are resulted in the overflow of sensibility. And since we believe the solution lies in the balance between reason and sensibility, the goal of the study is to provide philosophical foundations for overcoming the problems, by means of researching modern aesthetics and its establishing process. Generally, modern period is regarded as when reason ruled and sensibility was repressed. Looking carefully into the modern intellectual tendency, however, what we can discover there is the tension between reason and sensibility, and the establishment of modern aesthetics as the unification of both sides. While today's tendencies, like postmodernism, are biased toward sensibility, what stimulated the modern intellectual, cultural movements is strained relations between the different mental faculties, and the roots of such relations can be traced back to medieval times. This study will emphasize the dynamic aspects of the intellectual, cultural relations constituting medieval and modern periods, and furthermore, philosophically size up the possibilities to overcome today's crisis caused by the overflow of sensibility.
According to the purpose stated above, the scope of the research is divided into four parts; namely, the enlightenment of medieval period, the former periods of German Enlightenment, the latter periods of German Enlightenment, and modern aesthetics. and the 'enlightenment' here is, contrary to the general prejudice to regard it as standing for the superiority of reason, to be understood with mutuality between faith and reason, or reason and sensibility as an axis. This study take note of the tensions as follows; (1)There were endeavors to separate reason from faith even in the medieval spiritual tradition, and they had formed the basis of the appearance of modern reason. (2)In the beginning and the middle stage of 18C German Enlightenment, reason had close connection to the reflection on faith, on the one hand, and to the effort for the 'rehabilitation of sensibility' on the other. (3)Storm and Stress, which arose at the last stage of German Enlightenment in late 18C, represent the intense resistance of sensibility to reason, but it can be recognized not merely as a defiance, but a movement resulting in modern aesthetics. (4)Modern aesthetics had overcome the conflicts and limitations at the former stages by producing the 'balance in tensions' between reason and sensibility, and that had realized through philosophical projects of Kant and Hegel. Considering modern aesthetics in such historical contexts, we can critically reflect on the cultural tendencies today that seem to lean toward sensibility and refuse reason.