The nihilistic vision of reality portrayed in post-modern aesthetics is another dying myth. It has no more essential truth than the now naive idealism of Modernism. While the logic of the deconstructive methodology is convincing, history has shown that shifting epistemological parameters will eventually undermine the ontological ground of even the most reasonable proposition. The sense of truth associated with art, whether that of mathematical idealism or aesthetic symbolism, is a reflection of the human condition. However circular and self-fulfilling the logic, truth is not an absolute or objective property apart from the belief system it substantiates.
Truth is the affirmation of the myths that define our world.
Seen as the sanctifying agent of a sacred narrative, scientific truth is a subset of aesthetic truth. Its value extends no further than the context from which it is perceived. Despite the objective resolve of Structural and deconstructive aesthetics, they are no less mythic than the Formal aesthetic they displaced. Interpreted as supporting reductionist and positivist arguments, Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even is axiomatic in the dialectics of post-modern aesthetic theory. It is ironic that the piece has become a historical artifact of iconic significance.