Gurevich P.S. Eduard Spranger on the Beautiful and Aesthetic Man

Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of the aesthetic ideas of the German philosopher, psychologist and educator Eduard Spranger. Last year his book «Types of men: the psychology and ethics of personality» was fully published for the first time in the Russian language. Among six human types Eduard Spranger singls out the aesthetic man. Reconstructing this type, he turns to aesthetics and exposes his opinions about the nature of the beautiful and aesthetics as a psychological character. A special role belongs to his ideas about prominent philosophers and poets who, he believes, represent the aesthetic type. The author of the article uses methods and techniques of aesthetic analysis of works of art. The typology of forms of life is deduced from a comprehensive picture of the philosophy of spirit. The article is based on hermeneutic analysis of artistic creation and aesthetic practice. The aesthetic man in the works of Eduard Spranger is analyzed for the first time in Russian literature. The author of the article points out that an aesthetician as Soren Kierkegaard understands it and the aesthetic man of Eduard Spranger are not similar by their conceptual interpretation. The expressionist and impressionist forms of existence are being compared and analyzed. In his article Gurevich underlies that certain provisions of the aesthetic theory of Spranger are not new and sometimes require critical assessment.

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