Kate's criticism of Bell's position is on target. Bell's position reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell's: i.e. look for no examples that contradict the catchy thesis he wants to put forth.
Certainly I could echo Kate's remarks about her ancestors: I'm not aware of any forebear of mine pursuing any end whatever that I would call "aesthetic". Oh? What about in home decorations? When I was a little boy my impression was not that they looked for anything "pretty"; they just wanted to conform and keep up with the O'Rileys. Thus the ubiquitous lace curtains and antimacassars. Of course, we don't know what Bell had in mind with 'aesthetic' or any of those other terms I cited as key but undefined. Just possibly, if pressed he would flee into the vacuity of a stipulative definition, for an example of which I offer this from Frances: "The act of art here is meant to broadly include for example theistic religion and metaphysic phenomena and hypothetic philosophy and hermeneutic history and semic language and artistic art." *** Kate's posting: > In a message dated 6/1/09 11:26:41 AM, [email protected] writes: > > > > Daniel Bell's hollow statement was: "...In the nineteenth and early > > twentieth centuries[,]...for...the artists and the educated social > > classes...the > > exploration of all impulses became an aesthetic norm." > > > > I protested that Bell's statement had too many undefined terms: e.g. > > 'exploration', 'impulses', 'aesthetic', 'norms', 'class', 'all'. > > > > Never mind the undefined terms, in the nineteenth and early twentieth > centuries most of the people on both sides in my family were educated and > they > never thought of exploring their impulses as aesthetic norms. They > impulsively went west, planted peach trees, went to Burma, stayed home and > preached,went to war, started magazines, and built pianos- but they > didn't do > aesthetic norms. And they kept journals so we would know. What is Bell > talking > about? > KAte Sullivan > ************** An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222377040x1201454360/aol?redir=http ://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=62& bcd=JuneExcfooterNO62)
