Monday, August 8, 2016

Species, Genius, Communication

According to Kant, one of the defining characteristics of a product of Genius is that it is exemplary.  Thus, the Communicability of a work of Art is due to Genius, regardless his subordination of the latter to Taste in Aesthetic Judgment.  Now, plainly, by Communication, he means a relation to other humans.  So, the source of Genius is not, as he asserts, Nature, but, specifically, the Species.  Thus, insofar as Genius is an animating principle, at least part of the motivation of the affected artist is a Species drive to Communicate.  Accordingly the failure of Freud's reduction of artistic creativity to the Libido is that while it can account for the motivation to produce something new, it cannot explain the motivation to communicate a content to others.

No comments:

Post a Comment