The Oblivion of Practice in Aesthetics: from Freedom in Art to the Arbitrariness of Creative Action

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show that the subject of freedom has been blurred both in aesthetics throughout its existence and in practice, in one way or another, related to creativity. In the original sense, practice explicitly refers to freedom of choice and is interpreted now in art not as an ethical phenomenon, but as arbitrariness in the form of play based on the creator’s fantasy. The main research methods are history of ideas and phenomenology. The historical approach aims to show how the first century and a half of aesthetics from the foundation of this discipline by A.G. Baumgarten blurred its subject. The phenomenological method proposed by E. Husserl acts as a way of searching for the indubitable in manifested experience. The key results of the proposed research are the turning points in the evolution of the subject of aesthetics. As well as the indication of the mismatch of ethical and aesthetic dimensions in contemporary art as a significant result of the evolution of the research subject. And therefore, the ethical and aesthetic dimensions are complementary. And thus, make human experience within the boundaries of aesthetic phenomena more encompassing and far more complex than it is usually treated.