The Question of Style in Philosophy and the Arts

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries witnessed a change in the perception of the arts and of philosophy. In the arts this transition occurred around 1800, with, for instance, the breakdown of Vitruvianism in architecture, while in philosophy the foundationalism of which Descartes and Spinoza were paradigmatic representatives, which presumed that philosophy and the sciences possessed a method of ensuring the demonstration of truths, was undermined by the idea, asserted by Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, that there exist alternative styles of enquiry among which a choice is open. The essays in this book examine the circumstances, features, and consequences of this historical transition, exploring in particular new aspects and instances of the inter-relatedness of content and its formal representation in both the arts and philosophy.

• Contains new historical material • A welcome interdisciplinary approach to the debate • Wide range of contributors

1. The style of method: repression and representation in the genealogy of philosophy B. Lang; 2. Style in painting R. Wollheim; 3. Stylistic strategies in William Hogarth’s theatrical satires M. K. Lindberg; 4. Style in architecture J. Mordaunt Crook; 5. Par le style on atteint au sublime: the meaning of the term style in French architectural theory of the late eighteenth century C. A. Van Eck; 6. Aesthetic forms of philosophising L. Wiesing; 7. Style and community S. Kemal; 8. Metaphor and paradox in Toqueville’s analysis of democracy F. R. Ankersmit; 9. The formation of styles: science and the applied arts J. W. McAllister; 10. Beyond the mannered: the question of style in philosophy or questionable styles of philosophy N. Davey; 11. Style and subjective agency C. Altieri; 12. Style and innocence: lost, regained, and lost again? D. Franck; Appendix; Index.