Aesthetics from Antiquity to Romanticism

The course traces the path of the thought of the beatiful and sublime, as well as art and poetry until the rise of aesthetics as a special philosophical discipline, i.e. philosophy of art, in the period of Romanticism. The field of the aesthetic is defined as a field in which what is above the sensual is transmitted by the sensual. Greek, especially Platonic thought of the beautiful, art and poetry is contrasted with the understanding of the beautiful, found in the Hebrew Bible, and the Christian synthesis of both Greek and Hebrew elements in late antiquity (Dionysius the Areopagite) is presented. The rise of the second important aesthetic catgory, the sublime, in antiquity is then closely examined (Pseudo-Longinus), as well as its assertion in the 18th century (Burke, Kant). Finally, the elevation in the period of Romanticism through which art and literature became a priviliged place for revealing the beatiful and the Absolute is brought into focus (The Oldest System-Programme of German Idealism, F. Schlegel).