S M P L C T Y: Ecological Civilisation and the Will to Art
Over the last year I have been working on a collection of aesthetic essays called S M P L C T Y: Ecological Civilisation and the Will to Art. Although this project may still be a few months off completion, I’ve decided to start publishing essays as I finish them. Below I have posted the provisional Table of Contents for this project and the cover page. As I publish each essay, I will update this post by embedding links in the Table of Contents. Later today I will publish the Preface, followed by the Introduction later this week, and I’ll aim to publish one or two essays per week over coming months.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface: The Apocalyptic Sublime
BOOK ONE – THE WILL TO ART
Introduction: The Aesthetic Dimension
The Cosmos as a ‘Readymade’: Dignifying the Aesthetic Universe
Creative Evolution and the Will to Art
Pessimism without Despair: Suffering, Desire, and the Affirmation of Life
An Aesthetic Justification of Existence: The Redemptive Function of Art
Camus on Art and Revolt: Overcoming Nihilism in an Absurd Universe
Rescuing Aestheticism from the Dandies: Critical Distinctions
Homo Aestheticus, the Artful Species: An Evolutionary Perspective
Giving Birth to Oneself: Ethics as an ‘Aesthetics of Existence’
The Politics of Beauty: Schiller on Freedom and Aesthetic Education
BOOK TWO – THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART
Bad Faith and the Fear of Freedom: Can Art Shake Us Awake?
Banish the Poets! The Power and Politics of Aesthetic Education
Making Art While the World Weeps: Political Reflections on Aesthetics
Art Against Empire: Marcuse on the Aesthetics of Revolt
Answering Estragon: Art, Godot, and Utopia
Industrial Aesthetics: A Critique of Taste
Artful Descent: A Cosmodicy of S M P L C T Y
Poet-Farmer: A Thoreauvian Aesthetics
Democratising the Poet: William Morris and the Art of Everyday Life
The Aesthetic State
Conclusion: Revisiting The Glass Bead Game
S M P L C T Y: Ecological Civilisation and the Will to Art
Copyright 2023 © Samuel Alexander (Creative Commons Non-Commercial)
Published by the Simplicity Institute 2023
Working Paper Series: Essays on the Aesthetics of Existence
Cover design by Andrew Doodson, Copyright © 2023
Cover image by Agim Sulaj, Copyright © 2023 https://www.agimsulaj.com/index.shtml
Acknowledgements: Heartfelt thanks to Professor Brendan Gleeson for critically reviewing these essays. Countless improvements, both substantive and stylistic, were made in response to his feedback. Remaining errors and infelicities are my own. Thanks also to Agim Sulaj for generously giving permission to use his image on the cover, and to Andrew Doodson for his design of the cover.
