The Aesthetic Turn: The Cultivation and Propagation of Aesthetic Experience after its Declaration of Independence

A spirit has been conjured up and walks about in the Occident: the genie of aestheticism. In our day, a decisive, overarching and comprehensive, turn to the aesthetic is making itself felt, particularly markedly in the parts of the world affected by and looking to Western ways of life, but similarly to different extents across the globe. As a result of this long-standing and sustained aesthetic turn, aesthetic perception and aesthetically creative activity have become ubiquitously present and momentous. An ongoing and probably long-lasting aesthetization manifests itself and becomes a matter of vital importance across a number of traditionally well-established divides; and this testifies to the fact that the aesthetic has begun to assume a substantial and increasing role and exert a decisive influence upon a number of practices, and in a number of spheres, where it used to have an essentially subordinate role.