Prehistoric Aesthetics

Contents

List of Figures

Preface

Introduction: Prehistoric Art, Western Philosophical Aesthetics and Metaphysics

Part I: Prehistoric Aesthetics: Rethinking Western Philosophical Aesthetics for Prehistory

Chapter 1: Deleuze, Animism and Aesthetic Autonomy

Chapter 2: Whitehead, Aesthetic Judgement and the Animacy of Stone

Chapter 3: Rethinking Kant’s Conception of Aesthetic Autonomy for Animism

Chapter 4: Critical Metaphysics: Rethinking Adorno’s Aesthetics for Perspectivism

Part II: Towards an Ontology of Stone Age Art: From the Lower Palaeolithic until the Neolithic

Chapter 5: An Ontology of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Art

Chapter 6: An Ontology of Upper Palaeolithic Cave Art in the Franco-Cantabrian Area

Chapter 7: An Ontology of Neolithic Art in Britain and Ireland

Chapter 8: Prehistoric Art and the Aesthetic Autonomy of Modernity

Conclusion: The Becoming Literal of Aesthetic Autonomy from Prehistory to the

Contemporary

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Brecht Govaerts obtained a D.Phil. in Archaeology from the University of Oxford in 2022. He is an independent researcher specialized in prehistoric archaeology, theoretical archaeology, prehistoric art, continental philosophy, philosophical aesthetics, and the theory of modern/contemporary art. His latest publications include: ‘Autonomous Appearance: The Becoming Autonomous of Aesthetics from Experience in Deleuzian Aesthetics’, Deleuze and Guattari Studies (2026); ‘Deleuze and the ontology of prehistoric rock art’, Archaeological Dialogues (2025) and ‘The Divine Game Versus the Demonic Game: The Fourth Copernican Revolution in Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition’, Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy (2024).