从康德的“想象力难题”看近代美学的根本困境

On the Main Predicament of Modern Aesthetics through a Study of Kant's Concept of Imaginative Faculty

今天 ,近代美学本身成了艺术实践反叛的对象 ,这表明了近代美学的终结。然而 ,当代美学并未走出一条新路 ,而是陷入了深刻的危机之中 :在理论和实践两个方面 ,艺术与非艺术的界线已经模糊。反思美学在当代的危机 ,必须重返近代美学的真正起点———康德美学 ,才能探明美学危机的根源。康德美学所提出的“想象力”概念超出了他的理性主义美学的范畴 ,说明了摆脱美的实体化之困难所在。克服此困境的惟一出路 ,在于克服理性形而上学 ,走向当代生存论的存在论境域 ,阐明艺术、美和真理的生存论本质。

Today, modern aesthetics itself has become the victim of the art-praxis rebellion, which indicates the end of modern aesthetics, whereas no contemporary aesthetic theory has yet opened a new road but sunk into a crisis. Now the discriminating mark between art and not-art has been marred both theoretically and practically. Therefore we must go back to the starting-point of modern aesthetics, i.e., Kant's aesthetics, to make clear the origin of the crisis. The concept of the imaginative faculty, presented by Kant, surpasses the boundary of his rationalist aesthetics. This reveals the difficulty of getting over the substantialization of beauty. The only exit of this predicament lies in overcoming the rational metaphysics and entering the existential vision of the contemporary ontology, which will lead to the demonstration of the existential essence of art, beauty and truth.