L’esthétique sociale entre philosophie et sciences sociales

• Main Author: Barbara Carnevali
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: ENS Éditions 2013-10-01
• Series: Tracés
• Subjects: philosophy; sociology; aesthetics; economics; sociol appearances
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/traces/5685

This paper investigates relations between philosophy and social science in the field of social aesthetics, which brings together such disciplines as sociology, literature, and art history, from a philosophical prospective. The main problems of social aesthetics are illustrated by a series of social and aesthetic phenomena (such as lifestyle, prestige, and luxury) at the intersection of social science and aesthetics (interpreted both as theory of perception and theory of arts). Social aesthetics is defined as the study of appearance in the society. The paper investigates the knowledge model and theoretical foundations of this interdisciplinary field. Respecting legitimacy and disciplinary boundaries of social science, the papers reminds us that the domain of philosophy is synthesis, ability to bring together and to give a coherent structure to empirical knowledge derived from social science. Philosophy is concerned with problematisation, homogenisation, and articulation, and also with history and genealogy: these domains are illustrated by a history of the divide between aesthetics and economy, which dates back to the 18th century. The example demonstrates critical potential of philosophy, since it allows us to question several a priori concepts that frame our idea of knowledge (such as opposition between useful and useless, necessary and gratuitous), to connect, and to find analogies between seemingly distant spheres of reality.