Status Quo, Problems And Way Out Of Ecological Aesthetic Study

Ecological aesthetics is a new hot issue in recent aesthetic study in China. First raised by Chinese scholars in 1990's and as a brand new ontological concept of aesthetics, it has been continuously showing its advantages and potential for further development. And its achievements are worth affirming: ecological aesthetics puts forward new concepts and categories, and has gradually formed the philosophical foundation of ecology-centered doctrine and the thinking theory and thinking pattern of the whole ecological concept. The denomination and contents of ecological aesthetics also represent the valuable quality of aesthetics as a discipline that moves forward together with the times. However, as an emerging aesthetic concept, ecological aesthetics has problems if its own which is manifested mainly in the ambiguity of basic concepts and basic category; lack of theoretical basis in ecology-centered doctrine; deviations in inheritance and renovation of practical aesthetics; superficial explanation of ancient ecological wisdom; lack of cultural sources and spiritual connotation in ecological criticism, etc. Those problems overlap and intensify each other to bring potential crisis in the study of ecological aesthetics. The paper is intended to make a complete theoretical introduction to ecological aesthetics and directly exposes the problems of ecological aesthetics at various levels and in various aspects in an attempt to offer a way out for the ecological aesthetics to develop healthily in three aspects including basic theory, inheritance and renovation, practical application.