In Distinction the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu accused contemplative Kantian aesthetics of being a scheme to emphasize exclusionary cultural capital. “A work of art,” writes Bourdieu, “has meaning and interest only for someone who possesses the cultural competence, that is, the code, into which it is encoded.” This means there is an “unequal class distribution of the capacity for inspired encounters with works of art and high culture in general.” In previous eras Old Money became subscription audiences of symphonies and ballets, and the most illustrious served on the boards of museums. The
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