Date of Award
2011
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program
Theory and Criticism
Supervisor
Dr. Antonio Calcagno
Abstract
This thesis focuses on the political significance of Kant’s aesthetics, as it is taken up in the political thought o f Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière. While both Arendt and Rancière model their notions of political community on Kant’s notion of sensus communis, or aesthetic common sense, I point to important differences in their respective appropriations of Kant. Whereas Arendt draws out of Kant’s work on aesthetic judgment a politics of adherence to common sense (consensus), Rancière looks to Kant’s concepts of disinterest and disconnection to develop a politics of “dissensus”, aimed at reconfiguring common sense along more egalitarian lines. I argue that Rancière’s ability to account, not just for the aesthetic partitioning of communities, but also for their radical transformation or re partitioning through dissensus, makes him better able than Arendt to account for the introduction o f political subjects rendered invisible and audible by historically cemented forms of common sense.
Recommended Citation
Glyn-Williams, Owen Ryan, "THE POLITICS OF KANT’S AESTHETICS: HANNAH ARENDT, JACQUES RANCIÈRE, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF COMMON SENSE" (2011). Digitized Theses. 3574.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/3574