审美主义:从尼采到福柯

Aestheticism: From Nietzsche to Foucault

审美主义是以美为最高价值的思想倾向,不仅指对艺术的看法,也包括对人生的审美解释。尼采主张对人生的审美态度,提出了"强力意志"、"酒神精神"等命题,但是其审美主义致力于"审美形而上学"而忽略生活。福柯同样提倡审美的人生态度,提出了"生活是艺术品"和"自我构成为主体"等思想。福柯推进了尼采的审美生存主张,并力图将审美落实到日常生活。审美主义的意义和局限应当在个人自由和社会稳定之间的张力关系中得到说明。

Aestheticists maintain the supreme value of beauty over everything else. They not only hold that art should be valued according to its intrinsic aesthetic properties but also insist on the aesthetic justification of life. Nietzsche advocates an aesthetic attitude to life and puts forward ideas of 'will to power' and 'the Dionysian spirit', but he thinks highly of 'aesthetic metaphysics' and neglects life. Foucault has the same aesthetic attitude as Nietzsche's and proposes thoughts of 'life is art' and 'to constitute oneself as a subject'. Foucault carries forward Nietzsche's view of aesthetic existence and strives to fulfil aesthetics down to daily life. The significance and limitation of aestheticism should be expounded in the tension of individual freedom and social stability.