Article/Publication Details
Views: 3572

VASILY SESEMANN’S AESTHETIC IDEAS AND BEAUTY OF THE ETHICAL ACTION BEHAVIOR.
PREFACE TO THE PUBLICATION OF VASILY SESEMANN’S MANUSCRIPT – THE PROBLEM OF SPIRITUAL BEAUTY (1950-1955)

Abstract
This publication is devoted to manuscript of a famous Russian-Lithuanian philosopher Vasily Sesemann (1884-1963), accompanied by a preface. The text of The Problem of Spiritual Beauty belongs to Sesemann’s manuscript collection, located at the Vilnius University (F122-85). The text was written by Sesemann during the time of his imprisonment in the Gulag labor camp in Taishet (Irkutsk region). Being in the camp, Sesemann used to teach western philosophy and aesthetics to other prisoners. Sesemann devotes the manuscript of The Problem of Spiritual Beauty to reflection on the circumstances which make the aesthetic contemplation of the moral qualities possible. According to Sesemann, spiritual beauty is possible not only in the ethical field, but it also manifests itself in intellectual constructions. Ethical actions and products of human thinking are not the same, but both of them can be of the aesthetic value. All of them require the conditions for sensual presentation and realization in the specific situations. Ideas must be sensually expressed in order to acquire aesthetic value. Sesemann emphasizes two following points with respect to the aesthetics of ethical behavior. First of all, the reference is made not to general judgments about beauty, but to individual experiencing of a particular situation. Secondly, aesthetic experiencing is provoked by the actions, which astonish by their spontaneity, clarity and timeliness in a concrete situation.

Key words
Sesemann, manuscripts, aesthetics, ethics, sensual beauty, spiritual beauty, judgments about beauty.

References

• Hartmann, N. (2004). Estetika [Aesthetics]. Kiev: Nika-Tsentr. (in Russian).
• Jonkus, D. (2017). Rukopisi Vasilia Sezemana v Vilniuse i v Ulan Ude. Predislovie k publikacii rukopisei Vasilia Sezemana — Sheler, Lossky, Bergson (1950-1955) [Vasily Sesemann’s Manuscripts in Vilnius and Ulan-Ude. Preface to the Publication of the Vasily Sesemann’s Manuscripts — Scheler, Lossky, Bergson (1950-1955)]. Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology, 6 (1), 201-210. (in Russian).
• Sezeman, V. (1922). Esteticheskaia ocenka v istorii iskusstva [Aesthetic Valuation in History of Art]. Mysl’, 1, 117-147. (in Russian).
• Sezeman, V. (1925). O prirode poeticheskogo obraza [Nature of Poetic Image]. Lietuvos universiteto Humanitariniuu moksluu fakulteto rasxtai, 1, 423-481. (in Russian).
• Sezeman, V. (1927). Iskusstvo i kultura [Art and Culture]. Versty, 2, 185–204. (in Russian).
• Sezemanas, V. (1970). Estetika [Aesthetic]. Vilnius: Mintis. (in Lithanian).
• Shpet, G. (2007). Iskusstvo kak vid znania. Izbrannye trudy po filosofii kultury [Art as Type of Knowledge. Selected Works on Cultural Philosophy]. Moscow: ROSSPEN. (in Russian).