GRP 2009

Forster and the arts

University of Kassel, International House, June 19 - 20, 2009

Triggered by the harsh criticism of Kant, Georg Forster drafted the provocative idea in his 1791 essay On Local and General Education that as long as "form and dogma" still prevailed among "mechanically educated people" and as a result humanity was being "slaughtered", philosophers of reason should be "banished" from the "Republic". The arts should take their place, because only they protected the individual from becoming a mere "machine", and they also appealed to the "spontaneity of action and perception". Their "business" goes beyond the "representation of beautiful individuality": in the service of the free individual, the arts appeal to an unrestricted capacity for enthusiasm. This high song of 'Enthousiasmos' seems to contradict many a judgment of art penned by Forster. He is not brittle, but at times quite reserved or summary in his treatment of paintings, literature, plays or architecture. Sometimes he even tends to make moral judgments. For example, Rubens is often said to have taken too much pleasure in depicting the "most disgusting things in nature". Are we dealing here with obvious discrepancies between aesthetic theory and his own perception of art? Or is Forster cultivating an aesthetic individualism that attempts to mediate between the artistic ideal and the utterly unrealistic living conditions of the public? In order to answer such questions, the colloquium will focus on Forster's thoroughly 'asystemic' interest in the arts as well as his broad concept of art.