Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Head of Department of Philosophy of Art in Tehran University of Art
2 allameh tabtaba'i university
Abstract
Aesthetics is thought to be one of the most basic spheres of philosophy traditionally, and most of the great philosophers study it and write about it. But some of them have transcended aesthetics beyond its usual borders and have made it the core of the philosophy. In their view aesthetics, experience or act is one of the aspects of human being-in-the-world. They see aesthetics as an ontology, and try to treat it and artworks as ontological issues. German romantics, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, are of the most important members of these philosophers. Works of Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher, and literary theorist, show that we can classify him among these philosophers. He has always been interested in aesthetic issues, both in his youth which he focused on existentialist issues, and in the later phase of his life which he focused on literary theory. In both of these phases, he also deals with ontological issues. He has almost always looked at ontological issues from an aesthetic point of view. Why? Is this a coincidence? If no, what are his reasons for this choice? Why does Bakhtin care so much about aesthetics? And how can he treat ontological issues aesthetically? In this article, we want to answer these questions. To reach this goal, we begin with his anthropology and show that in his view human lives in the world in a concrete condition. He explains this condition whit a physical term: 'chronotope', which means a matrix of place and time. Moreover, he used another important concept which borrowed from the law, 'non-alibi'. This concept in Bakhtins's thought means human does not have any cause or alibi for not-being-in-the-world. Bakhtin adds more features to them, one of these features is ‘eventness’ which means human never is ‘to-be’ rather always is ‘yet-to-be’ which means the human never finish before death. This is an annoying situation for humans. It is almost like the ‘Angst’ in Existentialist philosophies. His difference with them is that he examines this condition aesthetically. Moreover, for him or her person is very important. So he translates human concrete condition into author and hero relation. Other people can compose a hero and consummate him or her, but he can also, communicate to him or her and make him or her 'unfinished'. If another person consummate hero, he or she will get out of non-alibi status, which means he or she is not alive and real human anymore. If other people communicate with him or her, he or she will stay in non-alibi status, which is annoying for him or her. It is a conflict. Bakhtin try to solve it aesthetically. And in this article, we try to explain this try. To reach this goal, we use another Bakhtinian concept: Carnival. Bakhtin thinks medieval carnivals were some phenomena between life and art. Human in the carnival is never consummated but at the same time is free from any angst, because he has an alibi. In this article, we will show how Bakhtin can reach this conclusion.
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