Abstract

Peter Sloterdijk’s Der Ästhetische Imperativ – Schriften zur Kunst is a collection of essays addressing a range of topics in the aesthetic realm, including sound, light, product design, cities and architecture, the human (artificial) condition, museums, action cinema and the art system. Via a ‘media’-anthropological, historico-philosophical approach, he critiques the ‘aesthetic imperative’ of (post-)modern design civilizations by re-evaluating the analogy between universal ethics and aesthetics after Kant. In this way, Sloterdijk argues for a more singular, intensive, socially and environmentally responsible aesthetic experience.