Ästhetischer Kapitalismus

by Gernot Böhme

Aesthetic Economy is a theory of the recent development of capitalism in our national economies. Basic needs are easily satisfied and, as a result, most commodities are no longer intended for consumption, but for the staging of our lives. That is, they are used to produce atmospheres.
Applications of the theory are found wherever staging is in commodity aesthetics, in marketing, as well as in the sphere of production. As to technology, we find a turn from useful to joyful technology. And the technology of entertainment has become a huge part of the general economy. Similarly, a further horizon of Aesthetic Economy is to be seen in the aestheticization of politics, the staging of sporting events and the management of culture.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

Published April 11, 2016

About the author

Gernot Böhme (born 3 January 1937, in Dessau) is a German philosopher and author, contributing to the philosophy of science, theory of time, aesthetics, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. He is the main pioneer of German ecocriticism, the study of the relationship between culture and the environment. He has been the director of the Institute for Practical Philosophy in Darmstadt since 2005. Despite being one of Germany's most acclaimed public intellectuals, very little of his work has so far been translated into English.
German

1995 Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik. Frankfurt am Main
1999 Theorie des Bildes. Fink, München
2001 Aisthetik. Vorlesungen über Ästhetik als allgemeine Wahrnehmungslehre, Fink
2002 Die Natur vor uns. Naturphilosophie in pragmatischer Hinsicht. Kusterdingen
2003 Der Typ Sokrates, Suhrkamp
2005 Goethes Faust als philosophischer Text. Die Graue Edition, Kusterdingen
2006 Architektur und Atmosphäre. München
2008 Invasive Technisierung. Technikphilosophie und Technikkritik. Kusterdingen
2008 Ethik leiblicher Existenz. Über unseren moralischen Umgang mit der eigenen Natur. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main

English translations

2001 Ethics in Context: The Art of Dealing with Serious Questions, Polity
2012 Invasive Technification: Critical Essays in the Philosophy of Technology, Continuum
2017 Atmospheric Architectures: The Aesthetics of Felt Spaces, Bloomsbury
2017 Critique of Aesthetic Capitalism, Mimesis