Abstract
This paper is concerned with the problem of the aesthetic freedom and the implications it has for politics in the conception of Christoph Menke, contemporary author of critical theory. Based on Menke's thoughts, the paper hints on the significance of the notion of the aesthetic freedom to the constitution of free society.
Menke opposes domain of the aesthetic with the social space, closely linked with the rational abilities of the subject. Menke characterizes the aesthetic freedom as the liberation from the social and from rationality.
Crucial for understanding Menke's notion of aesthetic freedom and its specific effect, important also for the political impact of the aesthetic freedom, is the notion of aesthetic force. According to Menke this concept signifies a basic principle of the aesthetic experience, i.e. its non-disciplinary, particular, expressive nature, not rule-governed, but a play, not aiming at knowledge, but based on effect.
Menke is convinced that in the notion of aesthetic freedom, i.e. in such an experience, is based (political) equality.