1.2 History of the formation of the subject of aesthetics

The separation of aesthetics, as already mentioned, occurred in the middle of the 18th century, thanks primarily to the works of A. Baumgarten. At the same time, aesthetics has existed in the depths of philosophy since ancient times. Ancient Greek philosophy was the first to realize the importance of an emotionally indifferent perception of the world and a person's attitude to it, seeing in this human ability a great spiritual value. A. Losev, clarifying the concept of "aistēsis", suggests understanding it as a "sensory sensation". Its Latin analogue - the concept of "sensus" means "a sense of contact", that is, sensory-sensory perception. According to A. Losev, both concepts mean “everything spiritual, everything mental - feelings, mood, intention, aspiration, and any feelings that can be imagined” [7, p. 166]. Along with these concepts, the Greek terms “estanomai”, “Estes”, “estanome” were also formed, corresponding to the concept of “feeling” and at the same time reflecting the individual human attitude to objects [2, p. 7].

The subject of aesthetics has undergone significant changes in the process of historical development of sensuality. The ancient Greeks already understood the all-pervasive nature of human indifference, tracing its enormous value. They understood the world as an animated material-sensory cosmos with its inherent harmonious, proportionate vitality, rhythmic design, which constitutes a majestic and purposeful in itself, beautiful integrity. Accordingly, the objective world in it each time represents an inseparable unity of the idea of ​​a thing and its material structure. The substantive and material modes of vitality form a harmonious integrity of a thing, the unity of its essence and manifestation. It is on this basis that it is legitimate, as O. Losev believes, to assert that all ancient philosophy, in the end, is nothing other than aesthetics [8, pp. 183-184]. Human activity, in particular artistic formation, was considered as an imitation (mimesis) of the beauty of the cosmic whole, designed not to violate the general harmony of the world whole. In addition, any formation was seen and stood as a formation based on beauty, therefore the technical and aesthetic principles in it exist as an organic whole (in contrast to modern civilization, where the named spheres have diverged from each other).

At the stage of transition from mythological consciousness to reflexive and in the subsequent period, aesthetics focuses its main attention on clarifying the question of the relationship between idea and matter. This problem is the semantic center of research interest. The problems of beauty are determined by an important component of ancient philosophy, which comprehends beauty as an ontological quality of the world.

Another important problem that investigated the direction of philosophy in the mainstream of aesthetic issues was the problem of art, which began to stand out as a special subject of research attention in Ancient Greece for two reasons. The first is the understanding of art as a special kind of spiritual activity aimed at forming an ideal objectivity through imitation (mimesis) of sensually observable forms. Affirmed by the experience of experiencing in the images of art, objects of indifference arise through the unity of the inner vitality of forms that are expedient in themselves and the experience of the person experiencing the attitude towards them (the unity of idea and image). Another reason for interest is "more practical". This is a study of the influence of art on the feelings of the perceiving subject and the formation of their perfection by the content of perfect works of art. A number of concepts appeared in the days of antiquity that were decisive for aesthetics in the future. These are the concept of archetype (Greek Arche - beginning, typos - image) - a prototype, idea, in particular an artistic idea; association (Latin associo - I connect, I tie) - a means of artistic expression; kalokagathia (Greek calos - beautiful; agathos - good) - harmony of the external and internal in a person; catharsis (Greek katharsis - purification) - a characteristic of the effect of art on the mind and feelings of a person; mimesis (Greek mimesis - imitation) - the principle of creative activity of an artist.

The aforementioned fundamental ideas of ancient philosophy regarding the sensual beauty of the world, the beauty of the spirit embodied in artistic phenomena, the idea of ​​an experiential attitude towards beauty laid the foundation for the further development of the named range of problems, and subsequently formed the sphere of aesthetics as a special branch of philosophical knowledge.

In the days of the European Middle Ages (IV-XIII centuries) the central problems of the philosophy of antiquity did not lose their relevance. The nature of understanding the origins and sources of beauty, the role of art in spiritual experience and the value of the experiencing attitude to the world changed. Medieval philosophers-theologians consider the world a beautiful creation of God, and God - the personification of the trinity of Absolute Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Beauty is seen not as something constant, but as mobile, hierarchical, its perfection grew as follows: from the material-physical beauty of the objective world to the spiritual world, and from it - to the Absolute, God. Structural patterns of the universe appear as aesthetic principles. These are integrity, unity, rhythm, proportionality, harmony, proportion. The beauty of art is also based on these principles. In the Middle Ages, on the basis of the idea of ​​beauty, the criterion of the artistry of art was first formulated. The higher the level of beauty in a work of art and the more specific the nature of its manifestation, the higher the value of the work. The value of art is determined by its influence on feelings - the emotional sphere and aesthetic judgments, associated with a feeling of pleasure or displeasure. Thus, ideas regarding the beautiful, art as a sensory embodiment of the idea of ​​beauty, the experience of beauty and its features deepened in the direction of the growth of the value of the spiritual principle. Beauty, as in antiquity, remained the central problem of philosophy, gives grounds to consider the leading character of the problem of beauty, because other philosophical problems are based on it as ascending.

In the Middle Ages, the subject (central problem) of aesthetics is the spiritually personal absolute, therefore it reflects not the corporeal-sensory reality of the beauty of the world, but a certain extracorporeal, spiritual meaning. As such, it can be reflected by sensory means only approximately, that is, symbolically. Therefore, the problem of the symbol acquires a leading character in medieval aesthetics. Symbolic artistic forms are called upon to display supersensitive spiritual ideas by sensory means.

The Renaissance (14th-16th centuries) deepens attention to the problems of beauty, changing the emphasis in its understanding. The creative human personality emerges as the personification of beauty. It is considered as a combination of natural and spiritual beauty, the unity of the rational and sensual principles of the spirit. Due to the need to determine the natural perfection of man, the practice of measuring the parameters of beauty spreads: proportion, harmony, measure. The aesthetic consciousness of the Renaissance is characterized by picturesqueness, since rhythm and proportions no longer belong to the plasticity of space, but above all, to subjective optical visibility [7, p. 571].

In the Renaissance, artistic thinking focused on the search for the laws of human perception and experience of real-world phenomena. The value of art is based on the nature of its perception, namely, the angle of pleasure or displeasure, that is, principles developed in the Middle Ages, but concretized taking into account the change in ideas about the purpose of art.

The Age of Enlightenment (14th-16th centuries) was of particular importance for the creation of a range of problems of the new science of sensory culture. The philosophers of the Enlightenment were distinguished by a new view of man - a "natural" being, endowed with a wealth of mental and sensory abilities. In this era, the nature of human judgment as a spiritual quality of the subject of indifference, the essence and dialectic of the objective and subjective in the content of the category of beauty were studied. The central category, next to the beautiful, in this era is considered to be "harmony", which allows us to reveal the characteristics of nature, art, the spiritual world of man in the dialectic of the emotional and rational, objective and subjective.

In the Age of Enlightenment, the concept of "taste" acquired categorical significance. The subject of research attention became the analysis of the social role of art, the influence of its various types on the moral improvement of the individual. It was in this era that aesthetics was singled out as a special type of philosophical knowledge, an independent philosophical science. Its development was conditioned by the enlightenment ideal of man - good by nature, and the evil that exists in the world is explained by imperfect laws and the lack of proper education. In this regard, art has the function of a spiritual mentor, which improves feelings and positively influences the morality of society.

Finally, aesthetics acquired the status of an independent science thanks to the works of the classics of German philosophy I. Kant, F. Schelling, G. Hegel. I. Kant, for example, formulated the ideas of beauty as a "free play of appearances". Thus, the subject of aesthetics acquired certainty. It turned out to be beauty that nourishes the spirit, and beauty was considered not a certain subjective formation, but a reflection of truth. Kant considered "expediently" to be the main category of aesthetics, a manifestation of which was beauty. In Kant's aesthetics, beauty is the leading aesthetic category. Of great importance were also the ideas of the connection between beauty and morality in art, the definition of the concept of the aesthetic ideal in art as a sensory manifestation of an idea. No less important was the classification of art forms, carried out on the basis of an analysis of the specifics of the ways of expressing aesthetic ideas, that is, beauty in certain types of art. F. Schelling's philosophical romanticism sees aesthetics as the highest form of spiritual experience, addressed to a holistic person and is a holistic embodiment of an idea. The scientist considers art as a sphere in which the opposition of theoretical and moral "but practical principles, the gap between the conscious and the unconscious are overcome. Hegel develops the idea of ​​aesthetics as a philosophy of art. In his aesthetics, art for the first time appears not just as a set of artistic phenomena, but acquires the character of a system of displaying the ideas of certain historical eras by artistic means. He considers art as the main subject and the main problem of aesthetic theory. From the point of view of artistic creativity, a wide range of questions of aesthetic theory is studied: the concept of beauty, aesthetic ideal, the personality of the artist, the nature of talent and genius, artistic formation and aesthetic integrity of the work, the problem of the symbol, etc.

Aesthetic theory of the 20th - early 21st century - the period of postmodern culture, is characterized by the loss of its subject, since the aesthetics of postmodernism is fundamentally anti-systematic, deliberately eclectic, aimed at undermining the conceptual apparatus of classical aesthetics, its principles, norms and criteria.

Thus, the analysis of the formation of the subject of aesthetics in the history of philosophical knowledge allows us to conclude that the main range of problems that have been defined as problems of aesthetics are: ontological beauty and beauty in art; the beautiful as a category of aesthetics, artistic beauty, aesthetic experience of the beauty of art, the social role of art, the connection between the moral and the beautiful; art as a historical phenomenon; artistic talent and genius, their creatively formative nature.

Therefore, philosophy became the theoretical basis of aesthetic knowledge and laid the foundation for further development of aesthetic issues, contributing to the formation of aesthetics as an independent science. A special role in this belonged, as already mentioned, to the works of A. Baumgarten, Kant, F. Schelling, G. Hegel.