美学——哲学的最高形态

Aesthetics as the Highest Form of Philosophy

美学长期在"形而上学"和"形而下学"压制之下,丧失了自身的特质。美学研究应当回到生存世界本身,研究人类生活的感性形式。这正是传统哲学无能为力的领域。所以,美学是从传统哲学止步之处发轫的。纵观美学史,从柏拉图将美学定义为最高形态的学问,到现代美学学科的形成,美学的要义与精髓正表现为其研究的是哲学中的最大难题。美学探索生活世界的根基,是一门超越传统学科的"元学"。因而,美学的发展也引发了哲学思维的剧变,哲学的"基本原理"由美学构成,美学真正成为了哲学的最高形态。

Aesthetics has lost its own distinctive feature under the long-term suppression of metaphysics and physics. Looking into the history of aesthetics from the vertical aspect, this paper argues that the be-all and end-all and distillation of traditional aesthetics has become the objective of the study of aesthetics and the largest problem in philosophy, from the period that aesthetics is defined by Plato as the highest form of knowledge to the formation of modern aesthetics discipline. The process of the logical development of classical German aesthetics is also the process in which aesthetics gains its top status. However, the problems in aesthetics has been the common and ultimate ones which should be settled in various knowledge fields with the evolvement of western modern philosophy and modern science. Hence, aesthetics has penetrated into various fields of the life world and become an ' initial inquiry' beyond traditional disciplines.