A Study On Liu Gang-ji's Aesthetics Of Practical Ontology

Liu Gangji's Aesthetics belongs to Marxist practical aesthetic ideology, and in China's contemporary forms of Marxist practical aesthetics , he takes "practice ontology" as the philosophical foundation and starting point in logic, so his aesthetic ideology can be called "practice ontology "aesthetic ideology. Liu Gangji takes practical ontology as the philosophical foundation, the theory of Creation-freedom as the core of his ideology, the theory of aesthetic reflection as the essence of art. The three Central interlocking factors constitute a complete aesthetic problem domain and form a three-dimensional network of ideology, which is a great contribution to China's Marxist practical aesthetics in the historical development of Chinese contemporary aesthetics, and which makes him unique and different from other contemporary Chinese aesthetics experts. This dissertation studies this issue in 7 chapters.The introduction mainly focuses on the origin and significance of the research in Liu's ideas. The previous research on this issue and the main problems were briefly summarized.The first chapter is the retrospective review of the historical source of Liu's practice ontology aesthetic thinking. Liu's aesthetics is deeply rooted in Chinese traditional culture. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism (mainly Zen) have profound impact on both his aesthetic ideas and his attitudes toward life. On the other hand, Liu's ideas are also influenced by western theories, namely, German classical aesthetics, Marxist philosophy and aesthetics, modern Western aesthetic thought and psychology, among which Marxist ideology is a fundamental basis. China's Marxist aesthetics occurred in the third or fourth decade of 20^th century in Yan'an period. On the basis of pre-scholars, Liu Gangji builds his Aesthetics theory.The connotation and context of Liu's practice ontology is discussed in chapter 2. Liu Gangji considers Marxist philosophy as the philosophy of ontology, which in different scope and level can be divided into material ontology and practice ontology. As for the ontology of the world including nature and society, it's material ontology; but in the context of human society, it's practice ontology. Practice ontology has triple basic connotations, namely, the existence of the presence, the existence of the awareness of ultimate explanation. Based on practice ontology, Liu Gangji uses practical creation and freedom to clarify the ultimate nature of aesthetics to begin his aesthetics ontology. His theory has specific historical context, it bases on the criticism and absorption of the research in Western Marxism and domestic Aesthetics.The overall characteristics and structure of Liu's practical ontology aesthetic theory is presented and analyzed in Chapter 3. On the whole, Liu's practical ontology aesthetic theory has two important features. One is that the judging the form of his theory, it belongs to Marxist aesthetics, the other is that it has three-dimensional and dynamic theoretical structure: its theoretical axis is the metaphysical reflection of practice Ontology, its theoretical practice is demonstration study of multi-knowledge, and it has a strong sense of the times and reality. As to the metaphysical theoretical dimension of his practice ontology, it has three main components: its philosophical basis is the overall concept of practice, the core of the theory is theory of Creation-freedom, the art essence is the theory of aesthetic reflection. These three interlocking rings constitute Liu's unique aesthetic ideology.The beauty and aesthetic feeling in the horizon of Liu 's aesthetics theory is illustrated in Chapter4. In the view of Liu Gangji, practice based on material production is the origin of human society. What is so-called beauty is the fruit of human practice. The specific and sensational manifests the various objects of human freedom. Therefore, beauty comes from human practice, and the essence of beauty is the freedom to create and its concrete demonstration. In form, in accordance with the distance between beauty and labor, beauty can be divided into pure beauty and impure beauty, or artistic beauty and realistic beauty. The latter can be divided into formal beauty, social and natural beauty, as the beauty is the emotional exhibition of freedom, the aesthetic feeling is a kind of mental pleasure caused by the realization of freedom from the world human created. It's a pleasure to see human itself overcoming kinds of difficulties using his intelligence and power as well as obtaining freedom from the object world. The aesthetic feeling is concrete, ultra-utilitarian and dynamic. Beauty is a category which has a broad sense, including tastes, aesthetic ideal and aesthetic standards.The implication of Liu's practice ontology Art and Aesthetics ontology is discussed in Chapter5. As Marxist philosophy is firstly a kind of practical ontology philosophy, therefore, Marxist practical ontology aesthetic theory of reflection is different from and cannot be confined to the reflection in general sense, It's a concept containing feeling and thinking, and its essence of art is the aesthetic reflection of the real life. Analyzed from the perspective of historical development, the forms of artistic beauty can be divided into primitive art, ancient art, neoteric art and modern art. From the reflection of art on reality, it can be divided into two series: reproduction and performance. According to other principles, these two series can also be further divided into 11 categories. Calligraphy and Painting Art Theory is the practice of Liu's artistic beauty theory in the research of branch art. In his view, the paintings reflect the aesthetic reality, which is the result of the mutual feeling from spirit and object. From the practical ontology aesthetic point of view, Liu Gangji brings forward the analogy of art of calligraphy, he sums up the two features of Calligraphy: the life forms and feelings. Thus he creatively puts forward the "extended literati painting" point of view, and makes a unique interpretation of "Six Ways". This shows that Liu's intention of developing scientific empirical aesthetics.The last part concludes the four overall academic character of Liu's practical Ontology aesthetic theory. His outstanding and unique contribution is generalized in seven areas such as practical ontology. The value and practical significance of this theory is also concluded.