Postnonclassical Aesthetics: the Problem of Shaping the Body of Knowledge in Contemporary Aesthetics

Abstract

The article demonstrates that contemporary (postnonclassical) aesthetic theory can be subdivided into at least three main areas: 1) classical core; 2) nonclassical aesthetics (nonclassics); 3) virtualistics. Classical aesthetics reveals the metaphysical core of aesthetics as a scholarly discipline, as well as the essential parameters of aestehtic experience and consciousness. Even today, it still holds the central position in aesthetic theory as philosophical aesthetics. Nonclassics is a dynamic subdivision of contemporary aesthetics, which is rooted, first of all, in the most recent experimentations in the areas of art-practices and research in the Humanities that are often opposed to classical methods, principles, and aesthetic values. Virtualistics is a new subdivision of aesthetics, which seeks to combine, inside the computer networks and in net-art creations, the entire corpus of the existing aesthetic theory and practical experience with the life experience of a contemporary person now rapidly taking shape. This can be designated the aesthetics of man’s existence in the virtual reality of digital spaces which suggests itself in this context as the main aesthetic category.