The Insatiability of Human Wants: Economics and Aesthetics in Market SocietyUniversity of Chicago Press, 2000 - 255 pages What is the relationship between our conception of humans as producers or creators; as consumers of taste and pleasure; and as creators of value? Combining cultural history, economics, and literary criticism, Regenia Gagnier's new work traces the parallel development of economic and aesthetic theory, offering a shrewd reading of humans as workers and wanters, born of labor and desire. The Insatiability of Human Wants begins during a key transitional moment in aesthetic and economic theory, 1871, when both disciplines underwent a turn from production to consumption models. In economics, an emphasis on the theory of value and the social relations between land, labor, and capital gave way to more individualistic models of consumerism. Similarly, in aesthetics, theories of artistic production or creativity soon bowed to models of taste, pleasure, and reception. Using these developments as a point of departure, Gagnier deftly traces the shift in Western thought from models of production to consumption. From its exploration of early market logic and Kantian thought to its look at the aestheticization of homelessness and our own market boom, The Insatiability of Human Wants invites us to contemplate alternative interpretations of economics, aesthetics, and history itself. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 69
Page 4
... consumption patterns . One of the corollar- ies of marginal utility theory , as it came to be called , was that consumer choice ceased to be a moral category : it did not matter whether the good desired was good or bad , just that the ...
... consumption patterns . One of the corollar- ies of marginal utility theory , as it came to be called , was that consumer choice ceased to be a moral category : it did not matter whether the good desired was good or bad , just that the ...
Page 5
... consumption . These distinctions between Progress and Development are central to chapter 3 , on modern individualism and the economic aspects of the " civilized " Man of Taste . This history of economic thought must be qualified by ...
... consumption . These distinctions between Progress and Development are central to chapter 3 , on modern individualism and the economic aspects of the " civilized " Man of Taste . This history of economic thought must be qualified by ...
Page 10
... consumption of literature and other cultural products increases with use : as with heroin , the more cultural exposure one has , the more one wants . 15 ( And , of course , the reverse : the less people are exposed to cultural phenomena ...
... consumption of literature and other cultural products increases with use : as with heroin , the more cultural exposure one has , the more one wants . 15 ( And , of course , the reverse : the less people are exposed to cultural phenomena ...
Page 11
... consumption , often with a physiological base , became domi- nant by the end of the nineteenth century , largely through the ascent of psychology in academic institutions ; and aesthetics of evaluation , best evoked today under the name ...
... consumption , often with a physiological base , became domi- nant by the end of the nineteenth century , largely through the ascent of psychology in academic institutions ; and aesthetics of evaluation , best evoked today under the name ...
Page 12
... consumption after the 1870s , and on models of consumption and taste unavailable in earlier periods , it also explores moments when aesthetic knowledge has provided alternatives to the forces of mechanization , commodification , and ...
... consumption after the 1870s , and on models of consumption and taste unavailable in earlier periods , it also explores moments when aesthetic knowledge has provided alternatives to the forces of mechanization , commodification , and ...
Contents
On the Insatiability of Human Wants Economic and Aesthetic Man | 19 |
Is Market Society the Fin of History? Market Utopias and Dystopias from Babbage to Schreiner | 61 |
Modernity and Progress toward Individualism in Economics and Aesthetics | 90 |
Production Reproduction and Pleasure in Victorian Aesthetics | 115 |
Practical Aesthetics Rolfe Wilde and New Women at the Fin de Siecle | 146 |
Practical Aesthetics II On Heroes HeroWorship and the Heroic in the 1980s | 176 |
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The Insatiability of Human Wants: Economics and Aesthetics in Market Society Regenia Gagnier No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith Aestheticism Arnold beauty Bebel biological body bourgeois Britain British called capital chapter choice civilization commodification commodity consumer consumption contrast critical critique culture Decadence desire division of labor economic economists elite Essays ethical feeling feminist fin de siècle freedom Gagnier gender global Hedonism homeless human idea ideology individual industrial insatiable interest Jevons John John Ruskin John Stuart Mill Jude literature living London male marginal revolution market society Marx Menger Milken Mill Mill's models modern moral nature neoclassical neoclassical economics nineteenth century nomic novel object Oscar Wilde Owenites Oxford Pater percent pleasure political economy poor poverty prison production productivist progress psychological race reproduction Rolfe Ruskin San Francisco Chronicle Schreiner self-interest sexual Smith socialist Stanford subjective sublime taste theory thetics tion utility Victorian wage Walter Pater wants wealth welfare Wilde's woman women workers writes York