Philosophy of Art

Aristotle reigned among the theories until Baumgarten, who certainly achieved an immense amount. Entirely according to Wolffian principles, he established perfection as the highest goal for the artist. The new world is that of separation, [where] finite and infinite are opposed; either mere intellectualism or sensualism prevails. The former was introduced primarily by Leibniz and Wolff, and Baumgarten set it up as the highest princip principle in art. According to him, sensory knowledge is only a confused one, which would certainly be the true essence
of the beautiful. of the knowledge of concepts, and thus the more perfect one. But since art is the highest principle, an objective representation of the ideal, he places aesthetic perfection in the confused (sensuous) knowledge of intellectual perfection, a principle that almost borders on truth if one takes the expression "confused" in the sense that the ideal is objectified here, [and] the Absolute is thus expressed as an idea in a finite form. The English are empiricists and sensualists in art. From Baumgarten to Kant, [the field] was...