Contemporary Interpretations Of Kant's Aesthetics Methodology

This dissertation is an attempt to reexamine Kant's aesthetic methodology with a kind of horizon of hermeneutics, and goes further into the superiority of transcendental methodology which has brought great prestige to his philosophy and aesthetics. The pre-Kant's aesthetics was based on scientism which divided the world into two parts: subject and object. Entitism and psychologism were its methodological principles. Kant gave a double sublation to entitism and psychologism of traditional aesthetics through a transcendental method which he used all along. Thus he established his own methodological principles of aesthetics: transcendental methodology, teleological principle and rational dialectics. Among these, transcendental methodology was the most fundamental method. The third chapter of this dissertation expounds the concrete application of this transcendental methodology in aesthetic field through transcendental analysis of beauty and sublime. The last chapter attains the goal of being consistent with Kant's aesthetic methodology by approaching the methodological subject of Chinese contemporary aesthetics, establishing a principle of trinity: practice-reflection-dialectic, Which is regarded as the most fundamental method for contemporary aesthetic research and thus lays a foundation for legitimacy of aesthetics.