ABSTRACT
I. Kant's Critique of Judgment inaugaurated in nineteenth-century Germany an intense occupation with problems of beauty, taste, and art. The character of play and freedom of the mind ascribed to the aesthetic attitude especially by Friedrich von Schiller in his Letters on Aesthetic Education aims according to S. Witasek precisely at this pre-judgmental attitude which lies at the basis of our aesthetic behavior. What has been said thus far is a descriptive analysis of aesthetic facts and experiences. The aesthetic value of an object is a derivative value, in the sense that it is not rooted in the object as such but rather in the aesthetic enjoyment this object conveys. Aesthetic predicates, early Meinong had said, are attributed to objects in the same way and as easily as physical ones. Aesthetic feelings are in all cases 'presentation-feelings'. This theory allows Witasek also to understand a number of features traditionally attributed to aesthetic behavior and aesthetic objects.
