Study On The Baumgarten’s Theory Of Perfection

Since Leibniz,German aesthetic rationalism has advocated the idea of "aethetics of perfection".Its core propositions include: Beauty exists in the perception of fullness;Perfection is a kind of unity of harmony or diversity,which is the manifestation of rational order in objective things.People like Gottschet and Wolff are loyal fans of this aesthetic of perfection.Among these people,Baumgarten’s theory of perfection is particularly representative.Because Baumgarten’s perfection theory not only makes a supplementary explanation for the conclusion that "the perfection of perceptual cognition is beauty",but also provides a useful attempt to solve the problem of the universal standard of taste judgment in the field of aesthetic appreciation.Therefore,this paper adopts the literature research method based on the original work,indepth analysis of concepts and theories layer by layer,and strive to explain Baumgarten’s theory of perfection clearly and succinctly,and try to make a more complete presentation of the uniqueness of his aesthetic thought.The first part of this paper is to sort out Baumgarten’s theory of perfection.Through a brief introduction to the thoughts of Leibniz,Gottschet and Wolff,this paper presents the theoretical tradition of perfection as the core of German aesthetics in the Enlightenment period.Then,Baumgarten,who has the relationship between teacher and successor,returns to the original classics,focuses on his definition and theory of perfection,and finally establishes the logical framework of the article based on this.The second part of this paper focuses on the analysis of the two meanings of the theory of perfection,that is,the perfection of the object itself and the perfection of perceptual cognition.The perfection of the object refers to the harmony and unity of the thing itself;The perfection of perceptual cognition refers to the richness and sharpness of all kinds of low cognitive abilities;There is an inextricable interdependence between these two meanings.This kind of dependency provides the necessary explanation and explanation for the proposition that "the perfection of perceptual cognition is beauty".The pleasure of the aesthetic subject’s mind is actually the symbol of the realization of these two perfections.The third part of this paper focuses on the problem of universal criterion in taste judgment,and attempts to use Baumgarten’s theory of perfection to discuss the possibility and basis of perfection as the criterion of appreciation judgment from three aspects: nature,degree and universality.Perfection can not only distinguish beauty and ugliness,but also measure the degree of beauty and ugliness;In general,perfection comes from the "extensive clarity" of the subject’s intuitive object.Extensive clarity is in the realm of what Baumgarten refers to as "veritas aesthetica".In Baumgarten’s opinion,the subject’s true cognition of the object’s aesthetics contains logical elements.Therefore,he holds that the connoisseur judgment made by the subject using the fullness has a certain degree of certainty.With the help of subject rational thinking and quasi-rational thinking,this kind of appreciation judgment can be transformed into clear concept in principle so as to guarantee its universality while maintaining its own personality characteristics.