ABSTRACT
Pre-modern civilization takes its bearings by tradition, understanding legitimation to reside in a privileged foundation. Consequently, when pre-modern movements challenge modernity for violating their cherished traditions, the accusation has force only for those who already accept the authority of pre-modern roots. Post-modernity defines itself on the basis of just such suspicion. The internal logic of foundational argument already prepares the way for this connection without need of appeal to any competing truths. Beauty might seem most amenable to pre-modern realization since pre-modern civilization finds legitimacy in the contingent existence of given tradition, which can only be captured by non-conceptual representation. The normativity of freedom provides the possibility of universally significant meanings by redeeming the search for truth the struggle for right, and art’s own quest for beauty as affairs of fundamental meaning to which no rational agent can be irrevocably indifferent.
