Practice and aesthetical consciousness: Kyiv, “Mystetstvo” (”Art”), 1971, 220 p.

The aim of the monograph is to investigate human aesthetical consciousness origins, its activity and genesis. The author uses a historical approach, which stresses the figure of the subject of history and its activity in the historical process. This approach serves as a methodology for identifying the preconditions of aesthetic activity and consciousness. The author criticises the “aesthetic qualities” theory, which doesn’t explain how a person reaches the stage of aesthetic contemplation. He believes that to achieve aesthetic comprehension of reality, it's necessary to undergo a historical path, with the main component being the development of labor, which stimulates the understanding of reality and cognition.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter І.  Methodology of the problem of aesthetical

1. About certain contradictions of the “aesthetic qualities” theory

1. Subject and object. The principle of historicism

Chapter ІI Evolution of mental forms of reflection of the world

1. The external world in the activity and psyche of animals
2. Social labor and human consciousness

Chapter III. Practical activity and human perception

1. Nature and society. Historical stages of world mastering
2. The human world as a world of needs and goals
3. Subject-form and subject-orientation of perception

Chapter IV. Social and individual preconditions of aesthetic consciousness

1. Individual and social in the structure of human consciousness
2. The role of motivations and goals in individual perception
3. Subject's freedom and aesthetic consciousness

Conclusion

Bibliography