Glass of Water in the Normative Perspective

Abstract

Three “glass of water” approaches are examined to find a way of treating new demands for the introduction of normativity into postmodern art and culture. Ortega y Gasset used the “glass of water” metaphor to protest against the aestheticization of everyday objects. Vladimir I. Lenin used the “glass of water” metaphor to protest against sexual liberation proposed by Alexandra Kollontai to liberate women from social and political control. Rudolf Arnheim used the “glass of water” metaphor to introduce equality of artistic value between abstract and representative art without losing the hold of universal aesthetic normativity in art. The author develops his critical attitude towards Lyotard's paganism, and explains normativity as a way of distinguishing between right and wrong works of art. To put together normativity in postmodern conditions one has to take into account those artworks which, while being good, are treated by postmodern pagan normativity as wrong. Discussions about normativity are constitutive for art if we keep in mind philosophical criticism and patience, as in Bergson's metaphor about a “glass of water”.