Shifting from Business to Art: Zygmunt Bauman and the Intellectual Challenge of Modernity

The paper examines the writings of Zygmunt Bauman from the perspective of intellectual history. It argues that the knowledge Bauman produced is fundamental to the cultural history of modernity, because his understanding is structured by that cultural history. This becomes clear when we focus on Bauman’s statements concerning the impact of capitalism on individual life, and zoom in on a shift in thought symptomatic of the cultural history of late capitalism: from the concept of “life-business” to the concept of the “art of life “. This shift from business to art as the principal norm-driving element is indicative of a cultural history that has arrived at the aestheticisation of society. In order to grasp the shift, the paper will first define late capitalism or late modernity as understood by Bauman. Second, it will describe the effects of late modernity on the individual way of life. Finally, the discussion will go beyond Bauman, reading “the art of life” he promotes towards the end of a long intellectual journey not only as a reflection of the ongoing process of the aestheticisation of society, but as an encounter with it