Humanizing (wo)man's sensibilities: Marx' idea of art

"The senses have their own history. Neither the object

of art nor the subject capable of aesthetic experience comes

of itself-these arise out of the process of man's creative

activity.

'Only music awakens the musical sensibility of

man . . . for the unmusical ear the most beautiful music

means nothing . . . and so the sensibilities of the social

man are different from those of the non-social man.

Only through the objective development of the richness of

human nature is the richness of subjective human sensibility-the

ear for music, the eye for beauty of form, in

short, sensibilities capable of human enjoyment, sensibilities

which manifest themselves as human powers-in part

evolved, in part created. . . . The objectification of human

nature both in theory and in practice was necessary, therefore both in order to humanize man's sensibility and to

create for all the richness of human and natural existence

a corresponding human sensibility.

The aesthetic impulse is not something biologically inherent, something preceding social development. It is a historical product, the result of a long series of material and intellectual production. 'The object of art,' wrote Marx. 'as well as any other product, creates an artistic and beauty-enjoying public. Production thus produces not only an object for the individual, but also an individual for the object."

2) "A world of uniform and independent atom-citizens
fears LIFE because any REAL motion, any manifestation of
living forces and interests, menaces its abstract EQUILIBRIUM."
(Emphasis mine )

From the book 'The philosophy of art of Karl Marx' by Mikhail Lifshitz

Aristotle: "The perfectly conditioned
has no need of action since it is itself the end." (From the same book)

https://rosswolfe.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mikhail-lifshitz-the-philosophy-of-art-of-karl-marx.pdf