Possible Worlds of Everyday Aesthetics: The Experiencing Self, Intersubjectivity and Life-World

Dan Eugen Ratiu

doi:10.25038/am.v0i22.376

Authors

Dan Eugen Ratiu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i22.376

Keywords:

everyday; everyday aesthetics, everyday life, experiencing self, intersubjectivity, life-world, self, subjectivity

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between the subjective-private and intersubjective-public dimensions of the aesthetic experience in everyday life. I claim that our everyday aesthetic life cannot be conceived of as a mere private world in absolute discontinuity to the public world, such as the “artworld” or the “life-world”, since it includes both personal and intersubjective dimensions. Likewise, although the “everyday” should not be thought of as absolutely one and the same for all, it is possible to search for the common features that emerge from the background of its multiple particularities. The intersubjective engagement is an essential element when analyzing the subject experiencing the everyday aesthetically, so we should acknowledge as well the intersubjective nature of a subject’s self-constitution and experience. Against the idea of the overall discontinuous nature of one’s aesthetic experience, in everyday context vs. artworld contexts, it is therefore important to consider everyday aesthetic experience as being both distinct and integrated into the continuous flux of one’s experiences, as well as related to one’s whole life. These claims will be supported by some insights on the experiencing self, supported by practical philosophy (Gadamer), as well as the characteristics of everyday life and life-world highlighted by phenomenology (Husserl, Simmel, Schutz). All these accounts offer powerful lines of argument in defending a consistent conception of the whole experiencing self and the structure of one’s everyday aesthetic life as well as its intersubjective dimension.

Article received: April 28, 2020; Article accepted: June 23, 2020; Published online: September 15, 2020; Original scholarly paper

Author Biography

Dan Eugen Ratiu

Department of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Romania

Dan Eugen Ratiu (b. 1964), Professor of aesthetics and philosophy of art at the Department of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. His main research topics include: art theories and practices, arts policy, and practical aesthetics. His current researches focus on everyday aesthetics and the interaction between cultural policy and artistic creativity. He is the author of four books and many articles on these topics published in Romanian, English, and French, e.g., Cultural Policy and the Arts: Local, National, Global (edited, RO 2011), The Quarrel between Moderns and Postmoderns: An Introduction to Contemporary Theories of Art (2nd edition, RO 2012), Art and Everyday Life: Current Explorations in Aesthetics (edited, RO 2016; See more on https://ubbcluj.academia.edu/DanEugenRatiu). Memberships: The European Society for Aesthetics (ESA), a member in the Executive Committee, co-editor of the ESA Proceedings (2012–2018); The European Sociological Association – Research Network Sociology of the Arts (ESA-RN2), a member in the Directing Board (2009–15); International Association of Aesthetics.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i22.376 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i22.376