The fate of beauty in a disenchanted age

Questions related to what constitutes art, and the relationship between art and the concept "beauty," have been especially contentious for a century now, prompting many critics and practitioners to announce the end of art, and beauty as an aesthetic ideal. This article first summarises the argument in favour of such a view, as articulated by two theorists who have addressed the issue in depth- Elaine Scarry and Jean-Francois Lyotard. Questions related to the fate of art and beauty in modernity then are readdressed by examining the larger social context within which these questions arise, namely, our disenchanted or technological age. To this end, Jean Baudrillard's thoughts on art in the contemporary era are entertained as a means of formulating a coherent response to the challenge of the end of art thesis. It is argued here that this challenge can be met by relinquishing the egocentric ethos that informs the technological worldview. Scarry, Lyotard, and Baudrillard, it is argued. advance the general claim that if something akin to beauty is to be found in the world, it must arise from an embrace of what resists incorporation within the realm of the human.