Episode 207: Herder on Art Appreciation (Part One)

Published: Jan. 14, 2019, 6:43 p.m.

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On Johann Gottfried von Herder\'s \\u201cThe Causes of Sunken Taste among the Different Peoples in Whom It Once Blossomed\\u201d (1775), \\u201cOn the Influence of the Belles Lettres on the Higher Sciences\\u201d (1781), \\u201cDoes Painting or Music Have a Greater Effect? A Divine Colloquy\\u201d (1785), and some of Critical Forests: Fourth Grove (written 1769). With guest rock god John "Jughead" Pierson.

What is aesthetic taste, and why do some societies (e.g. ancient Greece) seem particularly rife with genius? Herder has some definite ideas about aesthetic, sensual education as grounding for abstract thinking, rages against attempts to copy another culture\'s art-forms, and likes melody over harmony. Plus he coined the term "zeitgeist!"

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