Abstract :
As part of a wider project to consider the manner
in which philosophical aesthetics can effectively
inhabit the world of art practice as a teaching, this
essay works both with and against Hegel to identify
a fundamental aporia at the heart of the
theory/practice matrix. Rooted in the anti-dialogical
thought of thinkers such as Nietzsche, Maurice
Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas, this contribution
to the debate around inter/multi-disciplinarity
returns, paradoxically, to the integrative dialectics
of Hegel where, it is argued, the most serious challenge
to the facile fusion of theory and practice is
launched. Rather than undermining the teaching
of theory, this challenge is intended to launch a reevaluation
of the relationship between art theory
and aesthetics for the sake of a radical re-orientation
of art teaching.
