AESTHETICS AS PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCE

Aesthetics is a system of knowledge about the most common properties and laws of the development of the beautiful and the ugly, the sublime and the base, the tragic and comic phenomena of reality and the features of their reflection in the human mind. Aesthetics is a philosophical science, which is associated with the solution of the basic question of philosophy. In aesthetics, it appears as a question about the relation of aesthetic consciousness to reality.

1. The subject of aesthetics. It was formed in the course of the centuries-old development of aesthetic thought, based on the generalization of the practice of people's aesthetic attitude to the products of their activities, to works of art, to nature, to man himself. Many of the questions that aesthetics explores today have occupied humankind for a long time; they were set before themselves by the ancient Greeks, and before the Greeks the thinkers of Egypt, Babylon, India, China thought about them.

However, the name of science — aesthetics — was introduced into circulation only in the middle of the 18th century by Baumgarten. Before him, questions of aesthetics were considered within the framework of general philosophical concepts as their organic part. And only this German enlightener singled out aesthetics within the framework of philosophy as an independent discipline, taking place alongside other philosophical disciplines - logic, ethics, gnoseology, and so on. Baumgarten produced the term “aesthetics“ of the ancient Greek word, which means “relating to the sensual“. Accordingly, his aesthetics is the science of sensory perception. The subject of aesthetics, and hence the content of this concept, has constantly changed since then. Today, the subject of this science is: first, the nature of the aesthetic, that is, the most common characteristics, the aspects inherent in various aesthetic objects of reality; secondly, the nature of the reflection of these phenomena in human consciousness, in aesthetic needs, perceptions, ideas, ideals, attitudes and theories; thirdly, the nature of people's aesthetic activity as a process of creating aesthetic values.

2. The essence and specificity of the aesthetic attitude to the world. The aesthetic attitude is the spiritual connection of the subject with the object, based on a disinterested desire for the latter and accompanied by a feeling of deep spiritual pleasure from communicating with him.

Aesthetic objects arise in the process of socio-historical practice: initially spontaneously, and then in accordance with the emerging aesthetic feelings, needs, ideas, in general, the aesthetic consciousness of people. Guided by it, man forms the “substance” of nature according to the laws of aesthetic activity. As a result, the objects he created, for example, tools, appear as a unity of the natural and social sides, a unity which, being an aesthetic value, is capable of satisfying not only the material, utilitarian, but also the spiritual needs of people.

At the same time, the same object in one respect may turn out to be aesthetically valuable, for example, beautiful, and in the other - aesthetically anti-valuable. For example, a person as an object of aesthetic relationship may have a beautiful voice and an ugly appearance. In addition, the same aesthetic object may be valuable and anti-valuable in the same respect, but at different times. The fact that the aesthetic object has a relative aesthetic significance is also indicated by the polar nature of the main aesthetic categories (beautiful and ugly, sublime and low, tragic and comic).

3. Problem field and methodological base of aesthetics. One of the modern approaches to the consideration of the subject of aesthetics as a science is that the problem field of aesthetics is not a special field of phenomena, but the whole world, viewed from a certain angle, all phenomena taken in the light of the task that this science solves. The main issues of this science are the nature of aesthetic and its diversity in reality and in art, the principles of aesthetic attitude of a person to the world, the essence and laws of art. Aesthetics as a science expresses the system of aesthetic views of society, which impose its stamp on the whole image of the material and spiritual activity of people.

The nature and specificity of the problem field of any science determine the method that leads to the full coverage of the essence of the subject. From this basic thesis comes aesthetics. Since the specificity of the phenomena of consciousness lies in the fact that they are subject-objective in nature, then the aesthetics in their method cannot but proceed precisely from this basic feature of them, from the unity of the subjective and objective conditionality of these phenomena.

With the loss of the subject-objective nature of aesthetic phenomena, aesthetics loses specificity as a philosophical discipline that masters its subject matter precisely in its subject-object aspect. All other methodological principles of aesthetics follow from this fact.

First of all, it concerns the position that aesthetic phenomena should be considered in their final quality, holistically. After all, it is in a holistic, final quality that the unity of objective and subjective conditionality of aesthetic phenomena is manifested.

The implementation of this methodological principle begins with the discovery of the genetic roots of aesthetic phenomena. Genetic point of view - the original methodological principle of aesthetics. She explains how aesthetic phenomena (for example, art) are determined by reality, as well as by the originality of the author’s personality. The genetic point of view is the main methodological principle of aesthetics, thanks to which the subject-objective character of aesthetic phenomena is taken into account.

4. The structure of aesthetic theory. Aesthetic relations of man to reality are very diverse and versatile, but they are especially vividly manifested in art. Art is the subject of the so-called art criticism (literary studies, musicology, history and theory of fine arts, theater science, and the like). Art criticism consists of various sciences (history and theory of certain types of art). A complex of theories of certain types of art and theoretical knowledge related to art, some aesthetics are called the general theory of art and distinguish it from aesthetics proper.

Art critic branches of science perform in relation to aesthetics the function of auxiliary scientific disciplines. However, the auxiliary disciplines of aesthetics are not exhausted by this. The same auxiliary scientific disciplines in relation to it are, for example, the sociology of art, the psychology of art, gnoseology, semantics, and so on. Aesthetics use the findings of many scientific disciplines, not being identical to them. Therefore, due to the generalizing nature of aesthetics called philosophical science.

The specific relationship between aesthetics and art is clearly manifested in artistic criticism. Aesthetics is the theoretical basis of criticism; helps her to truly understand the problematics of creativity and put forward aspects that are consistent with the meaning of art for people and society. On the basis of its conclusions and principles, on the basis of established laws, aesthetics allows critics the opportunity to create evaluation criteria and evaluate creativity in terms of current requirements related to the development of social and value aspects.