Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Autonomy aesthetic
(1,305 words)

1. Concept

The composite term “autonomy aesthetics” combines what was originally a political term, autonomy (“self-determination”; “with its own laws”), also used juridically since the 17th century and elevated only in the Enlightenment, by Kant, to the status of a key philosophical concept, with A.G. Baumgarten’s (1735/50) neologism for the study of sensory knowledge, aesthetics.

Autonomy aesthetics is inherently concerned with two things, first the hist…

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Zelle, Carsten, “Autonomy aesthetic”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_017263>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160321



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