From Ontology To Ontology Of Life: Formalism Aesthetic Legitimation Pursuit

From nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century, with the awakening of people’consciousness and rationality, profound changes occurred in people’s view of nature, philosophy, ethics,aesthetics, way of life, behavior and ways of thinking. These changes eventually led to a qualitative change inthe western aesthetics and literary theory. The transition can be seen from the pursuit of the essence of beauty tothe exploration of the art. Finally, the issue came to the reflection of the art form, and gradually the formalismwon popularity. As for the formalism, different scholars held different views. Based on the origin of theformalism and the theory on history, the thesis puts emphasis on the pursuit of the humanistic value of theliterary theory of formalism. Through the research and discussion of the origin, development and characteristicsof the formalism, the thesis intends to find out how the formalism develops and point out the aesthetic basis ofthe existence of the formalism. Art, as a form of manifestation, includes characteristics and connotation of life.We can see in the art the organic integrity, movement, rhythm and growth of life.“Everything in the art showssign of people"."Art is a plastic form developed to express the fundamentals of life”.This thesis first summarizes " Copernicus revolution" of Kant’s philosophy and analyzes Kant’s" purebeauty" in order to point out the efforts and contributions Kant had made to bridge the gap between theperceptual and rational knowledge and the personal learning and the scope of application of Kant’s aesthetics.Based on this, the thesis analyzes the aestheticism, Russian formalism, the American new criticism, structuralism,pointing out the one-sided interpretation of Kant’s aesthetics by the following scholars and the effect ofdevelopment of modern scientism on literature and art. With the perceptual return and aesthetic objectification,people regarded the form as the ontology of art, which not only killed the spirit of art and pushed art far away from historical content, but also defied the human nature of the art. The formalism gradually became aderogatory nickname. susan Lange "life form" theory is not only on Kant’s aesthetic thought of regression, is toform the transcendence and development of Kant theory. Since the modern times, formalism in aestheticlegitimation pursuit the contradiction and the dispute, is a modern development and differentiation of the results,only in the sense and sensibility, self-discipline and heteronomy, the form and content of the contradictory butperfect harmony of the infinite change, to find out the legal formalism aesthetics foundation, to knowledge, love,meaning people in perfect harmony.