In the introduction we analyze essays of one of the initiators of present discussions about contemporaneity and contemporary art. We highlight the main arguments of Smith’s theory and at the same time note some of its deficiencies that could, in our opinion, be remedied by the introduction of a Badiouan notion of truth. At the same time we point out the position of Smith’s theory (philosophy) of art vis-à-vis those of Jacques Rancière and Nicolas Bourriaud.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35899437
Following Badiou’s conception of the world as a horizon of possibilities, the author discusses the impasses of contemporary politics of emancipation confronted with the transcendental horizon of our world that presents itself as one capable of covering the whole terrain of possibilities and the sole generator of novelties. In rejecting both, the teleological and the apocalyptical interpretation of the end of history, the author examines Benjamin’s and Agamben’s conception of the revolution of time in order to outline a possible departure point for an alternative thought in non-temporal terms.
COBISS.SI-ID: 36465709
The study begins with Kant's four definitions of the beautiful from the Critique of Judgement. Kant's basic operation in these definitions consists in what one might call essential subtraction: in each of the definitions Kant deprives the first notion exactly of that which is considered to be its essential characterization (e.g. beauty is “purposiveness without purpose”). Pursuing this topology of essential subtraction the study explores its role in the process of creation, relating the latter to Lacan’s theory of sublimation and the matrix of the three great sublimations – religion, art, science.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35881517