JVF Conference Papers
The question that will be addressed in this essay concerns just how we arrived at the point where the artist and the self forge an identity. Or put another way, how is it that modern depictions of the self, like the one just mentioned by Rorty, rely so much on an aesthetic sensibility? For a reply to this question, I shall try to establish an historical framework by examining the pivotal work of Immanuel Kant. Specifically, I will show how his work set the conditions for a series of machinations that make contemporary theories of the aesthetic self possible. I will close with some questions about the implications of Rorty’s definition of the self.
