The Pleasures of the Non-Sublime

According to Kant:

“Agreeable arts are those which have mere enjoyment for their object. Such are all the charms that can gratify a dinner party: entertaining narrative, the art of starting the whole table in unrestrained and sprightly conversation, or with jest and laughter introducing a certain air of gaiety. … there may be much loose talk over the glasses, without a person wishing to be brought to book for all he [or she?] utters.”

(Kant’s The Critique of Judgement, Oxford University Press)

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What Remains

According to Derrida:

 

“what, after all, of the remain(s), today, for us, here, now, of a Hegel?

For us, here, now: from now on that is what one will not have been able to think without him.”

“The incalculable of what remained calculates itself, elaborates all the coups, twists or scaffolds them in silence, you would wear yourself out even faster by counting them.”

“I begin with love.

This concept does not leave much room, despite appearances, for chitchat, or for declaration.”

(Jacques Derrida, Glas, University of Nebraska Press, 1986)

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