Papers by Gustav Jørgen Pedersen
This thesis discusses Mikel Dufrenne's view presented in The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experienc... more This thesis discusses Mikel Dufrenne's view presented in The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience (1953) that the aesthetic experience is a fundamental aspect of human existence, which is valuable in its own right because it conveys truth. According to Dufrenne the aesthetic experience is the reading of, and contemplation on, the expressed meaning of an aesthetic object. The expressed meaning is purely sensuous and its comprehension is bodily. In the thesis I pose three questions to this view. First, if the aesthetic experience is a bodily comprehension of sensuous expression, what separates it from empathy? Second, if it is said that the expressed meaning of the aesthetic object is true, what is aesthetic truth? Third, if it is held that the aesthetic experience is fundamental, and thus necessary and universal, how does it relate to its socio-cultural context? Briefly put, I argue that the major difference between aesthetic and empathic experience, is that aesthetic experience conveys truth. According to Dufrenne, truth is a meaning that illuminates the real. The expressed meaning of the aesthetic object is such an illumination, and it can be described as being structured by an a priori principle. Therefore, the expression of the aesthetic object is not a result of the spectator's projection, but is an aspect of the aesthetic object itself. However, I argue that even though the aesthetic experience always occurs within a socio-cultural context, it can nevertheless not be reduced to be a product of this context alone. Finally, I present three contemporary approaches to aesthetic meaning, and discuss their merits in light of Dufrenne's theory, and briefly propose how it can be relevant for further interdisciplinary work between art history, theory and philosophical aesthetics. VI VII Thanks to Bente and Arnfinn for interesting conversations and excellent supervising, Vandad for proofreading, and my parents and friends for support. VIII
In a text from 1894, called "Psychic Naturalism" [Psychische Naturalismus], the Polish writer Sta... more In a text from 1894, called "Psychic Naturalism" [Psychische Naturalismus], the Polish writer Stanislaw Przybyszewski interprets the art of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944). In Munch's paintings, Przybyszewski sees his own philosophical ideas; they are, he claims, crystallizations of a pure "individuality," a monolithic primordial force of darkness, sexual desire and strong emotions. In passing, however, Przybyszewski notes that one of Munch's paintings not only reflects and draws from this force of "individuality." It is, he claims, "almost a painted philosophy." 1 The idea itself, that painting in some sense is related to philosophy was nothing new. It would not even seem slightly strange in the avant-garde circles of the early 1890s to claim that painting could be something like a painted philosophy. The anti-Naturalist claim that art was not to be conceived of as a depiction of observed reality, but somehow an "art of ideas," 2 was among the most progressive views on art one could have in the European avant-garde circles to which both Munch and Przybyszewski belonged. In my view, however, Przybyszewski's statement points to a crucial question. For what does it mean that Munch's art is something like a painted philosophy? What are the 1
Kunst og Kultur, 2018
The article investigates the relationship between empathy and aesthetics from a dual perspective.... more The article investigates the relationship between empathy and aesthetics from a dual perspective. First, I discuss a painting by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, Weeping Nude [Gråtende akt] (1913-14), through the lens of 19 th century theories on aesthetic empathy, primarily as formulated by Theodor Lipps and Robert Vischer. And second, I reverse the point of view in order to discuss empathy and aesthetics through the lens of what I call the paradoxical pictorial thought of Munch's paintings. In contrast to the 19 th century theories on aesthetic empathy, which I argue presuppose the distinct separation between subjectivity (interiority) and objectivity (exteriority), I contend that Munch's paintings articulate how the affective dimension of our being is not private, and interior, but something that is sharable prior to the subject-object division.
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Papers by Gustav Jørgen Pedersen