Ästhetik und Philosophie der Kunst / Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art

The fourth volume of the International Yearbook of German Idealism is devoted to the aesthetics and philosophy of art of classical German philosophy. After A. G. Baumgarten and Kant, aesthetics attained an independent systematic form, one which remains influential to this day. Schelling, the Jena Romantics, and Schopenhauer bestowed upon aesthetics the status of first philosophy, a status that was then criticized by Hegel among others. This volume contains an extensive interview with Arthur Danto and Dieter Henrich about the significance of idealist aesthetics and its relation to contemporary art and aesthetic theory. Ten other contributions take up the themes of this discussion. Detailed comparative studies explore the aesthetic theories of Kant, Fichte, Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, and Schleiermacher, and mine their contemporary relevance.