Problems and Perspectives

Abstract

This presentation argues that the question about presup­ poses an analysis of the current state of the discipline, which again in turn must be seen in the light of its history. The presentation then unfolds a rough reconstruction of that history from Baumgarten and Kant, over Romanticism's establishing of the partnership with Art and Truth in the continental tradition and up to 20th century's settling with especially that tradition, led by endeav­ ours both within art itself, in the art sciences, and in different branches of philosophical aesthetics. On the basis of this, it finally discusses the future of aesthetics: its status as a scholarly discipline, the need for it in our world, and proposes some issues to be at aesthetics' future agenda of research. keywords Aesthetics (as scholarly discipline), history of aesthetics, future of aesthetics I The reason for dealing with the future of an academic discipline has nothing to do with a wish or need to tell fortunes. In the case of eco- nomics, the future is, of course, of very specific interest. As a discipline, economics is basically concerned with developing means of predicting economic developments. As we know, this task has not been carried out very successfully lately. Conversely, we have no need to really know what is going to happen in the field of aesthetics, at least not as scholars. Our reason for discussing the future would basically be the fact that this question immediately draws attention to the present state of things - to boundaries, functions, agencies and dynamics within the current physi- ognomy of the discipline. Only through an analysis of this state can the question of needs and future trends be dealt with properly. It is certainly no secret that the field of aesthetics might be more ad- equately characterized in the plural, as several different fields. Some of these fields conceive themselves as arising from and embedded in their very own traditions, rather often not even interested in or capable of entering into a dialogue with other traditions, although these refer to the same concept at least at headline level. To really understand what is going on within the discipline or disciplines of aesthetics, one must look back and investigate how these different traditions and understand- ings were founded, how they were developed, and how they have been interacting over the course of history. In other words, the question of the future engenders the question of the past. Of course, the history of aes-