The Aesthetic As A Cultural Critique

Since the 20th century, Western civilization has undergone a profound cultural crisis. Tools rationalism gradually exposed the tensions and conflicts with the humanism spirit. The various problems of the social and living conditions that modernity has brought led to the thinkings to the modern rationalism cluture from philosophy, sociology, aesthetics and other fields.East Europeon Neo-Marxist, according to the socialist countries reform of East Europeon, inherited the tradition from Marx and Lukacs and tried to rebuild the humanitarian Marxism. In such a socio-cultural and academic background, Agnes Heller, as an important East Europeon Neo-Marxist , launched a unique culture criticism theory from the perspective of aesthetic.She inherited Lukacs’s aesthetics thoughts and pursuited of human emancipation and freedom of individual .From the 1950s to the mid-1970s, following Lukacs, she exposed Marx’s thoughts deeply and systematicly, and consciously constructed Marxist humanism. Since the 1980s, Heller increasingly concerned about the topics of criticism of the Enlightenment and modernity, post-modern political conditions, radical philosophy, cultural criticism and social criticism. Heller’s modern aesthetic ideas provides a broad perspective to the society critical theory and to the human liberation and freedom .Her unique thinking perspective makes her different from other thinkers. Of course,it is not to say that Heller’s thoughts is entirely reasonable, perfect, we also see the limitations of her ideas. But her efforts can be said another ground-breaking attempt to the critique of modernity.