Art and culture: Aesthetic ideas of V. E. Sesemann

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of the aesthetic views of one of an interesting and original, but still, unfortunately, little studied Russian philosopher, V. E. Sesemann (1884–1963). Aesthetics occupied a leading position in Seseman’s philosophical constructions, while remaining fully embedded in the philosophy of the Russian thinker. Continuing the traditions of transcendental philosophy, Sesemann considers aesthetics as a general theoretical discipline that combines all private and separate studies of the theme of beauty. As in his theory of knowledge, the fundamental element of his aesthetics is the phenomenon of experience, which is the general pre-subject basis of Sesemann’s entire philosophical system. At the same time, however, aesthetic experience, in contrast to experience as such, is experience of a special kind. When identifying the specifics of aesthetic experience, the Russian philosopher attaches special importance to the study of the problem of form, which explains his attention to the work of Russian formalists. Arguing with the formalists and the German art theorist Heinrich Wölfflin and defending the nature of the form as lively and rhythmic, he also sees the positive aspects of these teachings. Sesemann develops his aesthetic ideas in a discussion with contemporary aesthetic theories. It is emphasized that Sesemann addressed the problems of aesthetics throughout his life and expressed his views on a variety of aesthetic problems: from theoretical and methodological to concrete practical and even applied ones. In his aesthetic concept, the Russian philosopher Vasily Emilevich Seseman tries to productively synthesize neo-Kantian and phenomenological approaches.