Abstract

In his previous book, The Kantian Sublime, Paul Crowther set out both to explicate and to improve on Kant. This new work seeks to apply some of the ideas developed there to the contemporary social and cultural scene. In particular Crowther casts a critical eye on our "postmodern" condition and its reflection in theory and in art, aiming at a middle course between outright rejection and indulgence in Baudrillard's "ecstacy of communication." Ambitious in its scope, the book is equally so in its putative solution to our ills: appeal to aesthetic contemplation, and to Merleau-Pontian embodiment in the world.