Abstract

RAMIREZ JARAMILLO, John Fredy. Paul Valéry: the birth of the aesthetic and artistic world. Estud.filos [online]. 2015, n.51, pp.109-124. ISSN 0121-3628.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ef.n51a07.

In this paper I offer a study of the physiological and anthropological arguments through which Paul Valéry makes explicit the rise of an aesthetic and artistic dimension in man. To that end I present, first of all, the author's analysis on the phenomenon of sensitivity from which the aesthetic world takes its form. I then examine the relationship between the cognitive and emotional modulations that configure the experience of art. At the same time, I make explicit Valéry's theory according to which useless sensations and arbitrary acts are the origin of art. In correspondence with these arguments, I attempt to prove that for Valéry the experience of the aesthetic awakens in man a particular kind of desire that can never be entirely fulfilled. On the other hand, I demonstrate that Valéry's concept of the aesthetic infinite, through which he describes the value of artistic contemplation, is tied to a species of pleasure that favors in each consciousness a meaningful reinvention of the world. I also try to corroborate that Valéry's reflections on the birth of the aesthetic and the artistic phenomenons are supported by a deep and original knowledge of the sensitive and psychical nature of the human being.

Keywords : Paul Valéry; sensitivity; aesthetics; aesthetic pleasure; uselessness; art.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )