Philosophische Schriften / Ästhetik

During the 40 year period in which Christian von Ehrenfels taught in the Universities of Vienna and Prague, it was problems in aesthetics which stood always in the foreground of his theoretical interests. He himself, however, published only a small number of essays on the theory of art, essays opposing the newly grown naturalistic movement in art theory, in which Ehrenfels -a dedicated follower of Richard Wagner – is concerned above all with the interpretation of musical works of art. Part I of this new edition will consist of these essays, which derive from Ehrenfels’ earlier creative period (1891-1906) with a theoretical monograph on the choral drama – a topic of quite special significance to Ehrenfeis since the greater part of his own literary efforts were conceived in this medium. Part II of the edition comprises more substantial investigations in aesthetics drawn from Ehrenfels’ scientific Nachlass and published here for the first time. Of the three manuscripts selected, the first served as the text of a lecture course on Wagner first delivered by Ehrenfels in Vienna in 1896. The two remaining pieces treat of general problems in aesthetics. Ehrenfels first of all discusses, in considerable detail, the manifold preconditions which must be met if an aesthetically evaluative judgment is to come about. He then goes on to deal above all with the question – which he answer in the affirmative – of the existence of absolute beauty. Of interest to: Philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, philologists, historians of Art and Music