ABSTRACT
Art transforms how things appear and through this changes our sense of whom and what we are. This self-becoming can be illuminated through an integrated theory of cognition, imagination, and the self—in the context of different art forms. However, such a task has not been addressed by contemporary aesthetics. The Analytic tradition has tended to explain the aesthetic significance of art through the limited notion of expressive qualities, whilst the Continental tradition has tended to understand the meaning of art by assimilating it to broader philosophical standpoints of authorities such as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Deleuze. The chapter argues that a Copernican turn is needed if aesthetics is to become of vital relevance again. This turn must encompass, in the first instance, those experiential needs that give rise to art and their conceptual links to the structure of self-consciousness. The rest of the chapter focuses on this. It offers a basic theory of cognition and self-becoming that emphasizes the importance of imagination, and the general importance of education in the arts.
