THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MUSIC AND AESTHETICS: CATEGORY, VALUE, MEANING, AND INTERPRETATION

Abstract

From ancient times to the modern era, philosophers have paid considerable attention to the nature of art and beauty, developing fundamental aesthetic categories such as beauty, sublimity, tragedy, and comedy, as well as the concepts of perfection and catharsis. These categories constitute the principal conceptual framework through which aesthetic experience is interpreted and evaluated. Aesthetics, a term introduced by the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten (1714–1762), is defined as the philosophical study of sensory perception and human experience of the world. It examines the subjective ways in which individuals perceive art, culture, and nature, and belongs to the branch of philosophy known as axiology, or the theory of values.