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Comparative Critical Studies 1, 1â2, pp. 1â15 © BCLA 2004 CHAPTER TWO After a short and checkered history, aesthetics is unquestionably enjoying an unexpected resuscitation. Having been given its first systematic exposition by Baumgarten in the middle of the eighteenth century, it quickly embarked on an impressive career, suffering just occasional setbacks when downgraded to pure semblance, or equated with the vacuity of a self-indulgent aestheticism; none of these disparagements however, affected its prominence as a philosophy of art throughout the nineteenth century. Aesthetics was ranked equal to metaphysics, and was sometimes even elevated to the capstone of the prevalent philosophical systems. Its downturn occurred in the twentieth century, when it was denounced as a flight from reality, a self-centered quietism, an idle disengagement, a deceitful illusion, and a narcissistic hedonism â in other words, when it was identified with attitudes. It is therefore all the more surprising that aesthetics now appears to be center stage again. The nature of aesthetics, however, has changed over time, and in order to understand its resurgence, we must first go back into its history. Baumgarten defined aesthetics (1735), as âthe science of how things are to be cognized by the sensesâ,1
Comparative Critical Studies – Edinburgh University Press
Published: Jun 1, 2004
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