On the Epistemology of Art. The Method of Estrangement

The adherence of a number of 20th-century intellectuals to the concept and term “estrangement” (Verfremdung) unites writers, playwrights, sociologists, and philosophers in their striving for the renewal of humanitarian thought, for politi­cal nonconformism, and for the substantiation of the autonomy of the individual. Viktor Shklovsky, Bertolt Brecht, Albert Camus are vivid examples of such authors. Most of them had to go through difficult times, in particular, in emigra­tion, which formed cognitive and existential attitudes close to those described by A. Schütz in the sociological essays “The Stranger” and “Homecomer”. The arti­cle shows that the idea of estrangement is a core of the certain epistemology of art shaped by the socio-political and cultural atmosphere of geopolitical crises and human tragedies, so characteristic of Europe in the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Contrary to the widespread tradition of considering the phi­losophy of art and existential philosophy as a slightly smoothed-over emotional-affective discourse that says little about cognition and is practically inapplicable to the analysis of science, the article offers a purely epistemological and positive view of such concepts as estrangement, absurdity and rebellion. Man must prove his right to be called a knowing subject, not just a semi-conscious recorder and consumer of information. The genuine goal of knowledge does not always con­sist precisely in the dispassionate revelation of the essence of reality as it is in it­self. Knowledge is hardly possible unless man is induced to take responsibility for knowledge in order to overcome the automatism of everyday existence, to achieve clarity of his own consciousness, to join in the dignity of knowledge and free action, i.e. such creative cognition that goes against circumstances, is not humbled and is not justified by them. This creative and research attitude can enrich modern epistemology with the heuristic and existential content.