In 2023 I published a book of political aesthetics called S M P L C T Y: Ecological Civilisation and the Will to Art (the preface, ‘the Apocalyptic Sublime’ is available on Resiliencehere). In this large volume of collected essays I presented an ‘aesthetics of existence’, which arose out of metaphors of art and creativity, and I explored the relationship of this new aesthetic cosmology to ecological practices of voluntary simplicity and degrowth economics. I had come to think that an effective politics needed to be an affective politics, one that touched our hearts as much as convinced our heads.

Two premises guided the development of that vision: first, that material sufficiency is all that is needed for human beings to live rich, meaningful, and artful lives; and second, that material sufficiency is all that is possible, over the long term, on a finite planet in an age of environmental limits. Based on those premises, I proposed and defended a conception of ecological civilisation which I call SMPLCTY. This is an anarcho-communitarian society of poet-farmers that sustainably provides all people with opportunities to find meaning and pleasure through creative labour and aesthetic experience.

To be sure, I do not naively present this vision as one that is likely to be embraced in the near-term by humans. Rather, I present it as the most coherent pathway out of the metacriss we’re in, and thus I believe it deserves our strategic attention, no matter how unlikely the pathway might seem.

S M P L C T Y was a very long book, however, comprised of twenty substantial chapters, so recently I set myself the task of distilling the essence of the book down to 10% of its original length, a task that was only possible after having written the extended version. The new book, just published, is called Homo Aesthetics: Philosophical Fragments on the Will to Art, which is available electronically on a ‘pay what you want’ basis here (including for free), or available in paperback here and hardback here.

Without originally intending it, the stylistic technique I employed was that of ‘philosophical fragments’, through which I attempted to summarise entire traditions, books, or perspectives in a sentence or two. Below I have posted the table of contents and the short preface to the new book, and in coming days we’ll share samples of the 525 fragments which comprise the book. The book is free to share under a creative commons licence, as are most of my other books.

Contents

1. The Aesthetic Universe
2. The Will to Art
3. Creative Evolution
4. Art and Beauty
5. Homo Aestheticus
6. A Critique of Taste
7. The Role of the Artist
8. Wild Civilization and the Poet-Farmer
9. The Aesthetic State
10. S M P L C T Y

‘Nothing is harder, yet nothing is more necessary, than to speak of certain things whose existence is neither demonstrable nor probable. The very fact that serious and conscientious people treat them as existing things brings them a step closer to existence and to the possibility of being born.’– Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game

Preface

This is an original book only in the sense that it weaves together other people’s ideas and perspectives in novel ways. I believe the result is something new, but more importantly, I think it offers a necessary counter-narrative to the disenchanted materialism that defines modernity. On first reading, some might suspect that the work was shaped largely by the tradition of German Romanticism – the Schlegel brothers, Friedrich Schelling, Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, etc. While that influence is real – most notably through the stylistic form of ‘philosophical fragments’ – it is actually far less significant than might first appear, and, in fact, is almost entirely indirect. I owe far greater debts to Arthur Schopenhauer – for his lucid statement of the problem of pessimism – to Friedrich Nietzsche – for formulating the ‘aesthetic justification’ of existence – to Friedrich Schiller – for revealing how the origin of humanity’s self-awareness was born of the experience of nature’s beauty – and to William Morris – for collapsing the distinction between artist and artisan, and for beginning to unpack the social, ecological, and political implications of doing so.

The influence of Indian philosophy, especially Buddhism, may also be seen simmering between the sentences that follow. This is a result, first, of the impact that tradition had on Schopenhauer, who of course influenced Nietzsche so profoundly, and secondly, of my independent and ongoing reflections on the Buddhist philosophy of life. While no prior knowledge of Buddhism will be assumed, readers who already have some grasp of this ancient wisdom tradition are well-placed to hear what I have to say about the Will to Art. While in my other writings I have been guided most significantly by the life and ideas of Henry David Thoreau, in this book those ideas are present but, for the most part, subterranean.

When I quote directly in the following pages, naturally I reference the source, but more often the aphoristic style I have employed has me attempting to summarise entire traditions in a sentence. I acknowledge these many debts now to be sure that, if my book has any original contribution to make, my disparate influences are clearly stated from the outset. Further references and detail on the present work can be found in the larger companion volume, S M P L C T Y: Ecological Civilisation and the Will to Art (2023), from which the ideas herein have been distilled. If readers are sufficiently stimulated or provoked by the present volume, please consult the larger version for the more detailed arguments, which therein take more conventional academic form. In that sense, S M P L C T Y can be understood as an extended footnote to Homo Aestheticus.

In closing, let me acknowledge that, to some, it might seem perverse to be publishing a book on art and beauty at a time when the world in so many ways is excruciatingly ugly and unjust, demanding direct political engagement. All I can say, in response, is that this book, far from being a pessimistic retreat into the realm of the imagination merely, represents what I believe is a strategic political advance, via the path of aesthetics, toward a more beautiful and harmonious world.

Homo Aestheticus is available in hardback, paperback, and pdf (on a ‘pay what you can’ basis, including for free).

Teaser photo credit: Snakeshead printed cotton designed by William Morris. (Identification from Linda Parry: William Morris Textiles, New York, Viking Press, 1983, ISBN 0-670-77074-4, p. 150). By William Morris – Planet Art CD of royalty-free PD images William Morris: Selected Works, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2441266