Abstract

The dissertation offers a critique of reductionist accounts of aesthetic experience, as well as a historical reconstruction of two central concepts of aesthetics: 'representation' and 'expression'. It argues that these are not 'timeless' concepts; their meaning and range of application have changed significantly throughout the history of aesthetic thought. Moreover, the history of the conflicting relations between these two notions can be seen as an indication of the tensions internal to the conception of art in modern times. In addition to maintaining the historicity of aesthetic categories, this study maintains that an adequate consideration of art as a social practice requires an intersubjective paradigm capable of taking into account its expressive and communicative dimensions. It also argues that modern conceptions of art are related to forms of understanding of the self. Hence, their differences and disagreements go beyond methodological discussions concerning the adequacy of descriptions and explanations of art objects or of the aesthetic experience. ;The first chapter is a critical overview of contemporary formalist theories in aesthetics. Special consideration is given to Monroe Beardsley's theory of the 'aesthetic attitude' and to George's Dickie's 'institutional theory of art'. ;The second chapter is an attempt to clarify the concepts of 'representation' and 'expression' in both conceptual and historical terms. A critique of the perceptual paradigm in aesthetics would be offered in which the thesis of the relativity of vision is advanced. ;Examples of the historical understanding of expression are considered, and Alan Tormey's critique of John Dewey's theory of art as experience is explored in an effort to clear up some common misunderstandings. ;In the third chapter, I consider the problem of the characterization of art in modernity. I then examine the correlative category of art as representation from the point of view of its reception by a public or a 'spectator' thematizing the 'image making faculty', in a discussion of art and the imagination. Finally, I explore the connections between modern conceptions of the self and of self-knowledge in relation to forms of representation in the arts