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The subjective practical philosophy by Li zehou and his attitude toward chinese ancient aesthetics
The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art
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Li zehou’s attitude toward chinese traditional aesthetics has intimate relationship with his subjective practical philosophy. Especially, his two books, History of beauty in China and History of aesthetics in ancient China on ancient aesthetics written after 1980’s seem to prove it because his practical philosophy of subjectivity was systematized at this time. Li zehou’s subjective practical philosophy suggests that the subjectivity, in other words, human nature can be built up only by the historical practice of human beings and this subjectivity is composed of two parts, composed of two aspects; ‘the structure of industrial art’ and ‘the structure of cultural psychology’. He explains the concept of ‘humanization of nature’ that he extracted in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts in 1844 and divides it into two side; ‘humanization of external nature’ and ‘humanization of internal nature’. And he tried to connect it with dichotomy of subjectivity, mentioning issue of the Beauty and a sense of Beauty. ‘Humanization of external nature’ is a realization of material civilization of human race and relies on production work in society. It also has connection with the matter of Beauty, making ‘the structure of industrial art’. On the other hand, ‘humanization of internal nature’ is a realization of spiritual civilization and based on production work in society. From ‘humanization of external nature’, it builds up ‘the structure of cultural psychology’ and is corresponding to ‘a sense of Beauty’. It was ‘a sense of Beauty’ what Li zehou put great importance regarding art. A sense of beauty, which is an identical concept of humanization of internal nature, has duality. One is about sensitive, intuitive, and practicable concept while the other is about super-sensitive, reasonable, and impracticable concept. After he suggested contradictory duality of a sense of beauty in 1956, he studied how rationality represents sensibility, how sociality represents Individuality, and how historicity represents mentality. At the end, he originated an idea, called ‘accumulation’ The idea of ‘accumulation’ has something to do with the social, rational, and historical concept deposited by individual, sensitive, and intuitive concept and it can be finally realized by humanization of nature. And the result is ‘new perception’. Art is a configuration of what new perception such as mental essence and emotional essence turns physically. Regarding the mental essence, he divided works of art into three classes, －which are form, configuration, and meaning classes. All of three classes embody the accumulation and development of emotional essence. The form class, which comes from ‘the original accumulation’ shows the relationship between an art form and the essence of human emotion, in which ‘humanization of internal nature’ corresponds with ‘humanization of a sense organ’ The configuration class relates with ‘humanization of sexual desire’ among ‘humanization of nature’, which composes repeated subject, theme, or contents. It can embody natural physiology and sociality of human being, and the development process results in ‘art accumulation’. The meaning class, which is an outcome of ‘living accumulation’, is a deepening and reconsideration of the form class and configuration class. While the form class and configuration class deliver certain ‘meaning’, the meaning class says the meaning of life. He systematized Chinese aesthetics by combining the concept and range of practice, humanization of nature, naturalization of human being, and psychological ontology. History of beauty in China(1981), and History of aesthetics in ancient China(1989) has great meaning in his subjective practical philosophy. From his point of view, the history of Chinese beauty is that of the structure of cultural psychology, which is led by the structure of industrial art, in other word, humanization of external nature corresponding with subjective practical philosophy. This structure of cultural psychology is human being, and emotional ontology. As he brands the form class as Zhuang ze(莊子) philosophy, configuration class as Qu yuan(屈原) tradition, and meaning class as Chan zong(禪宗) philosophy and tries to develop these concepts from historical point of view. History of beauty in China(1981), and History of aesthetics in ancient China would be the proof of historical process which he says the structure of cultural psychology(emotional ontology) was formed and accumulated historically.
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