Jeffery Nicholas differentiates between objective reason as a practice of evaluation that provides justification and critique and subjective rationality as a subspecies of reason limited to means-ends forms of reasoni...Jeffery Nicholas differentiates between objective reason as a practice of evaluation that provides justification and critique and subjective rationality as a subspecies of reason limited to means-ends forms of reasoning. He believes that modem crisis is a crisis of reason due to the dominant form of reason in modernity, i.e., subjective rationality. Nicholas aspires to develop a substantive form of reason to base a critical theory of society aimed at human emancipation in the spirit of the Frankfurt School. The most interesting part of this effort is that although Nicholas thinks that Habermas＇s theory of procedural and situated communicative rationality is an initial step towards a substantive conception of reason, he recognizes the limitations of formalism in this conception and argues that the requisite terms provides Maclntyre＇s theory of tradition-constituted and tradition-constitutive reason. The mediating figure in this project is Charles Taylor, whose critique, first, is used against Habermas and, then, his Gadamerian idea of the ＂fusion of horizons＂ is adopted in order to expand Maclntyre＇s theory.展开更多
The ＂Pictorial＂ or ＂Iconic Turn＂ is a central issue in the contemporary theory of images and visual cultural studies. Should the theories concerning the ＂Iconic Turn＂ and formulated in the last 20 years by schol...The ＂Pictorial＂ or ＂Iconic Turn＂ is a central issue in the contemporary theory of images and visual cultural studies. Should the theories concerning the ＂Iconic Turn＂ and formulated in the last 20 years by scholars such as Gottfried Boehm, William Mitchell, Hans Belting be taken as critical theories of crisis？ Is the currently experienced ＂turn towards images＂ （and their progressive rehabilitation after a long standing philosophical and theological rejection） a sign and symptom of some crisis of people＇s relation with images, language and, generally speaking, with the representation forms of reality？ The main hypothesis of this essay envisages two sets of problems： first, the analysis of the relation between the possible idea of turning point and the concept of crisis; secondly, the thorough investigation of the relation connecting the iconic turn to the project of ＂critical iconology＂ or ＂critique of visual culture,＂ as outlined by Hans Belting and William Mitchell. From the interpretation of the ＂Iconic Turn＂ as situation of crisis and aesthetic, anthropological, and epistemological transformation follows the need for the sciences of image to provide a ＂critical iconology＂ in order to be able to theoretically reformulate the ideological and political presuppositions of some dominant contemporary forms of visual representation.展开更多
文摘Jeffery Nicholas differentiates between objective reason as a practice of evaluation that provides justification and critique and subjective rationality as a subspecies of reason limited to means-ends forms of reasoning. He believes that modem crisis is a crisis of reason due to the dominant form of reason in modernity, i.e., subjective rationality. Nicholas aspires to develop a substantive form of reason to base a critical theory of society aimed at human emancipation in the spirit of the Frankfurt School. The most interesting part of this effort is that although Nicholas thinks that Habermas＇s theory of procedural and situated communicative rationality is an initial step towards a substantive conception of reason, he recognizes the limitations of formalism in this conception and argues that the requisite terms provides Maclntyre＇s theory of tradition-constituted and tradition-constitutive reason. The mediating figure in this project is Charles Taylor, whose critique, first, is used against Habermas and, then, his Gadamerian idea of the ＂fusion of horizons＂ is adopted in order to expand Maclntyre＇s theory.
文摘The ＂Pictorial＂ or ＂Iconic Turn＂ is a central issue in the contemporary theory of images and visual cultural studies. Should the theories concerning the ＂Iconic Turn＂ and formulated in the last 20 years by scholars such as Gottfried Boehm, William Mitchell, Hans Belting be taken as critical theories of crisis？ Is the currently experienced ＂turn towards images＂ （and their progressive rehabilitation after a long standing philosophical and theological rejection） a sign and symptom of some crisis of people＇s relation with images, language and, generally speaking, with the representation forms of reality？ The main hypothesis of this essay envisages two sets of problems： first, the analysis of the relation between the possible idea of turning point and the concept of crisis; secondly, the thorough investigation of the relation connecting the iconic turn to the project of ＂critical iconology＂ or ＂critique of visual culture,＂ as outlined by Hans Belting and William Mitchell. From the interpretation of the ＂Iconic Turn＂ as situation of crisis and aesthetic, anthropological, and epistemological transformation follows the need for the sciences of image to provide a ＂critical iconology＂ in order to be able to theoretically reformulate the ideological and political presuppositions of some dominant contemporary forms of visual representation.
