Philosophical Thought - rubric Aesthetics

Abstract: This article examines the elements of the philosophy of image of Marie-José Mondzain in light of the problem of relation between image, speech and desire. Although the main subject of Mondzain’s research is the iconic image and correlation between patristic concept of depiction and the modern technical regimes of its production and circulation, in a number of work she turns from the analysis of iconic image to studying the phenomenon of rock painting, analyzing interrelation and difference of the ability to production and performance of the image and speech. In these works, proceeding from the paleoanthropological theory of André Leroi-Gourhan, Mondzain analyzes the process of production and performance of rock painting as an event that defines the movement of anthropogenesis and forms human as a “desiring and speaking spectator”. The philosophy of image of Marie-José Mondzain is usually analyzed in the context of constructs of the modern French phenomenology and its “theological turn”. At the same time, a synthetic in its nature project of Mondzain sidesteps from the unambiguous affiliation with one or another philosophical tradition. This article reviews the elements of Mondzain’s philosophy of image not only in the context of paleoanthropological theory of André Leroi-Gourhan, but also a number of position of the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard, genetically connected with the phenomenological tradition of projects, but overcoming it in their own way. The analyzed in such context research of Marie-José Mondzain allow clarifying the meaning of invisibility, hollowness in structure of the image, attribution of the image to a speech or visible sign, and transformation of desire in the process of production and performance of the image.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2021.2.35061

Abstract: The object of this research is the concept of plasticity. The subject of this research concept of plasticity proposed by the French philosopher Catherine Malabou. The author examines the genealogy of the concept of plasticity, which includes the developments of the ancient philosophers Goethe and Hegel. Catherine Malabou based her system on the Hegelian conceptualization of plasticity. The author reviews several types of plasticity offered by Catherine Malabou, among which is neuroplasticity and destructive plasticity. Special attention is given to discrepancies between the concepts of “plasticity” and “flexibility”. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the analysis of novel approaches towards understanding the interrelation between philosophy and biology in the area of representations on human. The author notes that plasticity is the modern materialistic paradigm for understanding human from the perspective of the currently relevant philosophical direction of posthumanism. The following conclusions are formulated: plasticity indicates that nothing in the world can be set once and for all; plasticity has considerable hermeneutical potential due to its own flexibility and variability; plasticity is a productive way of posthumanistic representations on human due to its anti-essentialist orientation.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2022.1.37412

Abstract: The object of this research is music as a semantic process. The subject is problematization of the concept of meaning in music. The goal lies in outlining the main strategies for conceptualization of the musical meaning within the framework of the history of music-aesthetic teachings. The authors pursue the following tasks: conduct critical analysis of the basic music-aesthetic concepts, explore their metaphysical origins and ideological prerequisites, determine the conceptual boundaries of the concept of musical language. The acquire results lie in determination of the fundamental strategies for rationalization of music: music as mathematics, and music as language. Within the framework of these strategies, analysis is conducted on various concepts of the meaning in music and their metaphysical prerequisites. Among these concepts are musical ethos, world harmony, music affects, musical expression, and semiotics of music. The author clarifies the concept of music as language from the perspective of a range of discursive attitudes: musical language as a natural language of feelings (theory of musical expression), and musical language as a semiotic system. The scientific novelty of consists in application of the new approach towards reconsideration of the basic music-aesthetic concepts from the standpoint of the development of autonomization of the musical meaning. The research results justify drawing a clear boundary between the scientific and nonscientific discursive use of such common comparisons as “music as language” and “music as mathematics”. The conclusion is made the solution to problem of the specificity of formation and functionality of the autonomous musical meaning requires going beyond the narrow field of consideration of music as a semantic process towards the holistic experience of aesthetic perception.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2020.12.34614

Abstract: This article is dedicated to examination of the philosophical-aesthetic reflection in China in the XX century, and the impact of European aesthetics upon the development and transformation of the traditional Chinese aesthetics. The article employs the method of historical and cultural with elements of structural analysis of aesthetic text of the modern Chinese philosophers. In the XX century, a number of Chinese thinkers made attempts of reforming the traditional Chinese aesthetics, complementing it with the viewpoint of European philosophy. The article examines the paramount aesthetic thoughts of the modern Chinese philosophers Wang Guowei and Zong Baihua, and determines the impact of European philosophy upon them. The scientific novelty of this study lies in assessing the impact of the concepts of European aesthetics upon self-reflection and development of Chinese aesthetics in the context of cross-cultural problematic. It is demonstrated that Chinese modern aesthetics in many ways retains its connection with the tradition, which determines its specificity and imparts peculiar semantic symbolism. The conclusion is made that in the XX century, Chinese philosophers sought to complement the existing traditional Chinese reflection on art, which is based mostly on the ideas of Taoism and Buddhism, with what can be referred to as the Western viewpoint, associated with a scientific approach and scientific interpretation. Another vector in the area of humanistic understanding of the phenomenon of art was related to the attempts of interpretation of the European aesthetic thought from through the prism of Chinese traditional philosophy. The philosopher Wang Guowei tried to incorporate the European aesthetics into the scientific problematic of China. The philosopher Zong Baihua wanted to synthesize the Chinese and European aesthetic theories, and create what he believed is the modern Chinese aesthetics.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2022.7.38464

Abstract: The article provides an aesthetic and philosophical analysis of the causes of historical changes in the image of pain in Western European culture. The concept of suffering arising in the Renaissance is considered as a significant reflection of the general transformation of sensuality. The main approaches to the phenomenon of pain in the humanities and various points of view on the possibility of its representation by artistic means are outlined. The focus of attention is on changes in the spatial and temporal orientations of culture, as well as the aesthetic metamorphoses caused by them, considered by the example of how artistic creativity revealed the theme of pain. The change of aesthetic consciousness from the Middle Ages to Modern period is analyzed using examples from medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art. The article examines the formation of the concept of personal existential suffering and its reflection in cultural artifacts. The novelty of the research is the concept of the aesthetic mechanism of the Renaissance, understood as a change of forms of sensuality that structure experience. Such transformations lead to the emergence of new artistic forms, which especially characterizes the Renaissance. The foundations of the metamorphoses of sensuality are found in the change in the image of reality, which formed the renaissance aesthetics and predetermined subsequent cultural trends. The social and theological reasons for these changes and their interpretation by humanist philosophers are considered. The research draws a connection between a new understanding of time and space, communicated both to the other world and to earthly life, and the deepening of personal affective experience and aesthetic component. It is concluded that the result of the new chronotoping was the strengthening of the immanent experience of suffering and the formation of a different way of representation.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2022.3.37150

Abstract: The research aims to fill the gap that arose in the study of the history of the category of irony in the gallant era and to show how its formation and understanding took place in the XVII century. Understanding the formation of one of the most important aesthetic categories at the beginning of Modern times helps to understand the development of aesthetic thought and art of this period. In irony, the gallant aesthetic is opposed to the Baroque one. The gaiety and irony of gallantry are the antithesis of baroque bombast and grandiloquence. Without this period of time, it is impossible to understand modern irony, since it goes back not to antiquity, but to the art of Modern times. This is the relevance of this study. In order for this particular aesthetic category to come to the fore in art, a certain confluence of historical conditions and circumstances was necessary. The first half of the XVII century is the time of the formation of a new gallant ethos, the change of the heroic aesthetic ideal to the gallant, the transformation of the knightly estate into a courtier, the emergence of a new socio-cultural space - salons, gender revolution and active penetration into the ruling elites of the third estate. All these factors together and individually influenced the widespread use of the category of irony. This article discusses various aspects of this process.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2021.9.36464

Abstract: The subject of this research is the problem of incommensurability and the crisis of foundations of the Ancient Greek mathematics. The article describes that the crisis of foundations was caused by the discovery of irrationality by the Pythagorean Hippasus of Metapontum, which resulted in the theoretical instability of mathematics of the Pythagoreans, who believed that everything could be expressed through numbers. The discovery of incommensurable line segments demonstrated that the relations between rational numbers cannot express any variable, for example the diagonal of a square with one side equal to one. Analysis is conducted on the achievements of the Pythagorean School in the field of mathematics. Special attention is given to the role of a number in the philosophy of this school. The article explores the main ways for overcoming this crisis, philosophical explanation of the unfolded situation, based on which the Pythagoreans formulate the methodological ways out of the discovered problem of incommensurability. It is noted that the Pythagoreans were actively elaborating on their philosophy and mathematical apparatus intending to find the answer to the discovery of incommensurability. The author’s special contribution lies in the statement that the discovery of irrationality was not critical for the Pythagoreans: they continued working towards the answer to the problem of incommensurability, as well as refined the mathematical theory of proportions, reconsidered the representation of infiniteness as a certain numerical characteristic of the things and processes. This article is first to advance a hypothesis on the possibility of dividing the object into an infinitely large number of infinitely small parts, which is now understood as the limit of function, which contributes to the development and application of dialectics. The problem of incommensurability led to the creation of new, complex theories in the history of science, culture, architecture, and art.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2022.10.38896

Abstract: The subject of the study is the analysis of the preservation and creation of an image in the art of photography. The invention of photography and the creation of a technical image is considered the second turning point in human culture. An image is an imagination, an illusion, it is a reflection of the sensory world. The object of the study is the specificity and evolution of attitudes towards the concept of an image in photography as an aesthetic phenomenon. The language of fine art, as an earlier phenomenon, had a significant impact on the creation of a photographic image, but the role of photography in changing the language of fine art is also noted. The purpose of this work is to identify the features of the formation of photographic thinking, in the analysis of its evolution. As a methodological basis of the study, the formal-stylistic method of cognition, the method of sensory cognition and historical and cultural analysis are used. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the analysis of the role of imagination, illusion, magic in creating a photographic image. Causal relationships do not work here - the image of the acts as an intermediary between the world and man. Both the photographer and the subject are the directors of the creation of the image, and the game becomes part of its creation. The image is what the director-photographer wants to see, and how the subject feels. However, the freedom of the photographer is limited by the quality of the equipment, which makes it necessary to improve the technical means of the camera more and more. Creating an image is the implementation of the technical capabilities that are embedded in the camera. The image of photography is the subjective vision of the master, the transformation of the real world into the world of illusion.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2018.2.25001

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the examination of the New Black Aesthetic trend and determination of its basic peculiarities. It originated in 1960’s in the United States as a response of the Afro-American population to the autocratic discourse of the white culture. Having emerged as a part of the “Nation of Islam” movement, the New Black Aesthetic rapidly transformed into the independent art movement, becoming comprehensible through the specific set of categories. The starting point of conceptualization of the aesthetical practice in terms of the considered trend lies in persuasion that the result of art must be the transformation of social life. It reconciles the New Black Aesthetic with the philosophical positions of pragmatism and neo-pragmatism. The article also separately examines the problematic of subversive relation to the New Black Aesthetic from within the Afro-American community, concentrated in the concept of “cultural mulatto”. The author refers to the framework of multimodal materials of the indicated aesthetical trend, using the visual-semiotic, content, and historical-comparativist analysis. The author introduced into the discourse of Russian aesthetic research the description of one of the most significant aesthetic projects of the XX century – New Black Aesthetic (NBA), as well as characterizes the political and historical context of its establishment, key peculiarities, and impact upon the contemporary cultural movements.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2020.5.32356

Abstract: This article analyzes the origins of one of the core problems of philosophical-aesthetic thought of N. Berdyaev – the philosophy of beauty. Importance of the phenomenon of beauty for the formation of its aesthetic concepts and worldview overall is demonstrated. The author determines the main sources that determines the heightened interests towards the phenomenon of beauty, which affected the peculiarities of solution of this problem. Considering the defining character of Berdyaev’s personal and emotional attitude to the surrounding beauty, major attention is given to revelation of this source as most significant for understanding the entire further evolution of his philosophical-aesthetical thought as a whole, as well as establishment of the philosophy of beauty in particular. Therefore, the article reviews a number of life circumstances that defined his aesthetic development, which in the end leads to the fact that the aesthetic component becomes paramount in his worldview, and beauty turns into a universal criteria of assessing other diverse phenomena. The study carries a holistic character, being at the intersection of aesthetics, philosophy, culturology, biographical genre, which determines the applied complex historical-philosophical and philosophical-culturological methodology. This article is first attempt within the national literature to examine and reconstruct the origins of Berdyaev’s aesthetic evolution. The author reveals the key role of the problematic of beauty not only on formation of his aesthetic concept, but philosophical thought overall. Analysis is conducted on the source of Berdyaev’s aesthetic views that drastically affected the development of his philosophy of beauty.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2022.8.38616

Abstract: The object of the study is the currently formed image of the Russian manor in its aesthetic interpretation, and the subject is the Russian noble manor from the point of view of the peculiarities of its perception. Turning to history, the author noticed that the existence of the estate as a material building largely depended on the observer's interest in it, and it was he who formed its status throughout the existence of the estate. However, although the image of the estate has been addressed in various periods from the point of view of history, art, culture and architecture, one can find a little study of it from the observer, whose role, according to the author, should not be underestimated. The author suggests starting the research that can establish and describe this role by establishing the Russian estate as a work of art, not only possessing the aura that V. Benjamin wrote about, but also capable of generating an atmosphere. The atmosphere differs from the aura in that it is not enclosed in the object of art, but forms the space around it. It is also important to distinguish three sides of the modern perception of the Russian estate: the interest of others in it, personal interest and the ratio of their own and others' interest. It is in the correlation of interest, aura and uniqueness of each act of its perception that the significance of aesthetic experience and aesthetic perception lies in the study of the image of the Russian estate.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2020.3.32311

Abstract: The subject of this article is the concept of sublime. The author examines which transformations has experiences the aesthetic theory of sublime since the XVIII century. In the context of aesthetics of trauma, sublime is a specific form of aesthetical experience that emerges in the context of encountering traumatic experience of the history, where the key concomitant affect is horror. The forms of sublime, associated with encountering the historical trauma, are immeasurable by their influence, as the scales of catastrophe cannot be assessed rationally, and the experience of historical violence discredits the possibility of subjective routine. Research methodology is structured on the philosophical-aesthetic approach. Which is based on analysis of the concepts of sublime and negative sublime. The author comes to the conclusion that sublime in the XX century experiences crisis related to reconsideration of the modernistic values. However, discipline associate with the aesthetic reconsideration of traumatic historical events – the aesthetics of trauma, rehabilitates the concept of sublime, because representation of the traumatic through referring to sublime, opens an opportunity to comprehend the traumatic experience and overcome it.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-8728.2017.1.21765

Abstract: The subject of this research is the phenomenon of “Russian Renaissance” as a little-studied cultural paradigm of the XX century, its history and philosophical core – the “Paris Note”. This article illustrates the distinctive features of “Paris Note” and poets, who had similar to it perception of the world. The author analyzes the foundation of the “Paris Note”, as well as concept, poetry of symbolism, neoclassicism, and acmeism. The work also examines the “synchronic-reminiscent chronotope, by the virtue of which was created the genre polyphony alongside the “monologue on polyphonic basis”. For the purpose of revelation of the content of neo-acmeism as an artistic direction of the XX century, the author attracts the peculiarities of its functionality in external communication with symbolism, which transformed into its latent phase in 1934, and neoclassicism. Comparative analysis along with the method of semiotic reconstruction of a poetic text, serve as the key towards understanding of the internal structure of neo-acmeist cultural paradigm. Neo-acmeism in emigration continued the mission of symbolism: “duality of the world”, concept of the world as “aesthetic phenomenon” transforms into the principle of mystical energetism, cognizing the noumenal world through the “mystical revelation”. Emigrant neo-acmeism is determined as the synthesis of elements of modernism and realism: its poetry combines the mystical worlds, “real-irreal” dichotomy, symbolic “doctrine of correspondences”, and clarity, historical specificity inherent from realism. The conclusion is made that neo-acmeism (“Russian Renaissance”) in its structure contains a so-called converging mental code of the Russian culture, which connects the diverse poets within the framework of a single literary movement. Such way of examination of neo-acmeism as the continuous paradigm of post-symbolic traditionalistic creative work, as well as one of the important lines of literary development that combines the domestic and foreign experience, contributes into determination of the inner wholeness of Russian literature, which develops within the dialogue of various artistic systems (symbolism, acmeism, and neoclassicism).

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2018.11.26855

Abstract: The subject of this research is the philosophical grounds that predetermined the discovery of proof of the existence of incommensurate or irrational magnitudes in the philosophy of Pythagoreans at the time when the very notion of irrationality was an anathema for those suggesting that the numbers were the rational entities underlying the Universe. Therefore, it became possible to express both, physical and cultural-aesthetic consistencies, by the similar to each other mathematical rows and geometrical proportions that predetermines the calculation methods for harmonic structures, uninterrupted proportions and limiting values – the first premise to the structure of ancient teaching on formation. Based on the interdisciplinary analysis and comparative method of research, the article analyzes the history of discovery of the phenomenon of incommensurability and irrationality. A conclusion is made that back in Pythagoras’ times, this discovery led to the need for substantial transformation of the entire fabric of elementary geometry in anticipation of structuring the general theory of proportions, causing the first in history crisis of ancient philosophy and mathematics. The author also substantiates and traces the discovered by Pythagoreans correlation between the irrational proportions and irrational mathematical constant of “golden ratio” that underlies the architectural proportions in the history of culture, as well as reflected in various regularities and spheres of human existence – science, culture, architecture, and art. Among the main conclusion is also the author’s hypothesis that universality of the irrationality of magnitudes of “golden ration” and their prevalence in the diverse natural and cultural regularities up to the present encourages the pursuance of meanings, which would unite them into a certain common theory that generalizes and expresses the structure of global constants.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2017.9.23635

Abstract: This article examines the various aesthetic paradigms of music, as well as analyzes the possible directions in development of the aesthetics of music of the XXI century. Music is viewed from the perspective of paradigm of the social philosophy. The impact of aesthetic ideals of avant-garde music of the XX century upon the contemporary art of music. The author studies the aesthetics of song form, as well as considers the possibility of “neoclassical synthesis” – the creation in modern aesthetics of music of the idea of new classics, which continues its traditions throughout the period of XVII-XIX centuries, preserving the song form as an expression of national character and the original integrity of arts (music, poetry, dance). The work also reviews the problems of spiritual crisis of modernity reflected in the aesthetic ideals of music. Analyzing the modern aesthetics of music, the article applies the methodology of organic philosophy (its peculiar form of phenomenology and hermeneutics), as well as the typological and comparative analysis, method of synthesis and historical-philosophical reconstruction. The latter allows posing a question about the aesthetics of music as a phenomenon through referring to the historical evolution of its interpretations as cultural phenomena. Comparative analysis helps correlating the various aesthetic-music paradigms. Hermeneutic methodology reveals the individual interpretations of music introduce by separate composers, philosophers, and culturologists. The scientific novelty is defined by viewing the aesthetics of music of the XXI century through the prism of organic philosophy, which paradigm allows manifestly realize the need for creativity as an intrinsic part of human existence and astonishing phenomenon, without which the life of future generations is impossible. Due to this, organic philosophy reveals the determination of the future, and allows viewing the fourth dimension of the aesthetics of music, connected with the entire palette of human feelings, inherent property of spiritual demands along with their individual realization.

DOI: 10.7256/2306-0174.2014.8.13400

Abstract: The main question considered in article is the question of interaction in works of painting of three structural components: taste, measure and harmony. Building structure of a work of art on the basis of this triad, the author proves that art taste is not simply esthetic category, but such active structural component of art creativity which, being inherent initially in its carrier artist, subsequently finds itself in the finished work of art. This structural component, along with "measure" and "harmony" is, according to the author, one of the main (main) form-building structural components of a work of art. At the end of research, the author unexpectedly comes to a conclusion about similarity of a functional purpose of a measure and taste, but parts these categories by identification of the nature of their functioning.Methodological base of this research is the method of the structurally functional analysis; dialectic method; method of a germenevtichesky reduction; method of intellectual speculation, and also general scientific (general-logical) methods: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy, modeling. As a result of the conducted research, the author comes to the following conclusions: 1. The great guess of I. Kant about social background of antinomy, remains an actual problem and today. 2. In art and creative process, the artist, creating a work of art, deals not with judgments of taste, and with an embodiment of the flavoring judgments in a work of art. And the conclusions about the acceptability and applicability of this or that flavoring preference (i.e. judgments) for concrete work separately, are taken out by reason of the artist. 3. The unity of a work of art, is approved by a triad: first of all – a sozdannost of a work of art, then presentation and an oshchushchayemost. This triad which is esthetic installation of the author, in turn, reveals through the following triad - a triad of structural characteristics of a work of art: measure, harmony, taste.4. The measure and taste, is more subjective structural components whereas harmony, having been born as a result of merge of the first of two, is objective education.5. As a result of existence at art of function not only esthetic, but also psychological, substantial, communicative and, is wider – world outlook – disharmony as an art composition method, is quite proved to put perhaps in one row with harmony. 6. The measure will be necessary until original, that is creative works of painting which, in turn, will depend on novelty of a context are created.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-8728.2017.2.21763

Abstract: This article reveals the romantic aesthetic of neo-Acmeism as one of the key directions in literature of the XX century, its concept and specific mythology, which in turn, establishes the poetic world model. The author analyzes the worldview and poetic world of generation of the “Sixtiers”, as well as views its spatial-timely continuum, coordinates, artistic space and time as a peculiar aesthetic and verbal phenomenon. The work introduces the notion of synchronic-reminiscent chronotope, shifted towards the boundaries of the real space and time, by the virtue of which the “monologue on the polyphonic basis” is created in mythology. The author examines the works of Brodsky – poetics, chronotope, and composition of the insignificantly studied poem-mystery “The Procession” with reference to the neo-Acmeist paradigm. In the center of comparativist approach is the resemblance of expressive means of the author’s stylistic, from literary approaches, general phrases, quotes, and allusion to the wholeness of the author’s concept of lyrical plot, artistic space and time – the synchronic-reminiscent chronotope that in a similar way is presented in the mystery “The Procession”, “Poem Without A Hero” by A. Akhmatova, “Divine Comedy” by Dante, antique tragedies and plays of H. Ibsen and A. Strindberg. Comparative analysis and the method of semiotic reconstruction, complementing each other contribute into the detailed decoding of e poetic text. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that for the first time the work of Brodsky is subjected to comprehensive interpretation, viewed in light of action of the cultural memory mechanism, and author’s mythology – as the synthesis of form and content. The article analyzes the peculiarities of functionality of neo-Acmeism in external communication with the traditional Acmeism, differentiates the literary groupings and chronological frameworks of the “new Acmeism”, as well as determine the ontological dominants in the works of an “esoteric circle” of the neo-Acmeist “Sixtiers”. This method allows reconstructing the phenomenon of the “Sixtiers”, which comprises the ontological core of neo-Acmeism as a continuous line of post-symbolic and traditionalistic creative work. The author defines the genre innovations and traces the specificity of intercultural communication between the traditional and “Renaissance” Acmeism.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2022.2.37242

Abstract: In this paper, the aim is to investigate the reasons for the demand for diversity and novelty in a gallant society, how from the sphere of secular and gender relations these requirements come to literature and art, becoming one of the main aesthetic principles of gallant aesthetics. It seems important to consider the phenomenon of the art of the XVII century, when diversity and novelty become a sign not of avant-garde art, not the lot of a narrow group of artists breaking with the old tradition and breaking through the layer of inertia and rejection of their innovation, but a well-formulated and conscious fundamental requirement of Modern art. Several aspects of the problem can be distinguished - philosophical, philosophical, social, gender and artistic. Moralists, writers, philosophers, art historians of the XVII century are united in the opinion that diversity and novelty are the fundamental principles of the new aesthetics. The gallant aesthetics of the XVII century, relying on Cartesianism and rationalism, does not give up before the infinite diversity of the world, which is in constant motion. The art of Modern times considers the principle of diversity and novelty as a reflection of the richness and diversity of the surrounding world, the impermanent nature of man himself and, consequently, as the main condition for what to like. Diversity is perceived as a pleasure for the eyes and mind. It is contrasted with monotony and tedious static.