Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art: Beauty, Representation, and Expression

Abstract

This article examines central debates in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, focusing on beauty, representation, expression, interpretation, and the definition of art. It first discusses Kant’s account of aesthetic judgment as subjective yet claiming universal validity, then reviews major theories of art, including mimesis, expression theory, formalism, and institutional theory. By comparing these approaches with key counterexamples such as abstract art, conceptual art, and readymades, the article highlights the difficulty of defining art through fixed perceptual or emotional criteria. It also considers aesthetic experience, interpretation, and the ontology of artworks, concluding that contemporary aesthetics must address new challenges posed by digital and AI-generated art.