Abstract

The artistic gesture is a unique demonstration of individual freedom. Rather than manifestation of truth or beauty, aesthetics represents personal morality in that the individual determines what ought to be. This determination is entirely free and unforced, as opposed to the individual's moral responses to his natural and social environments. Uncoerced and dependent only on the individual's personal initiative, it represents a particularly significant moral consideration. Such an interpretation of morality and aesthetics is the focus of the first chapter. ;The second chapter is a consideration of Schellings Abhandlung Uber das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit by Martin Heidegger. To date this work has not appeared in English translation. The treatment in this case represents not a literal translation, but rather an extensive commentary, as the Heidegger work is explored for its unique consideration of human freedom. Both Schelling and Heidegger recognized aesthetics as an integral part of their philosophical orientation, one that contributed to the subsequent existential development in philosophy. ;This existential aspect is the focus of Chapter 3, which emphasizes the literary character of the writings of Soren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre. The premise is that these two existentialists used artistic means to demonstrate explicitly the importance of personal freedom that is implicit in their philosophies. Kierkegaard, as a Christian existentialist "poet-philosopher," and Sartre, as an atheistic existentialist "novelist-philosopher," incorporate in practice what Schelling and Heidegger deliberated in theory: the significance of aesthetics and freedom as personal morality. ;The final chapter is an argument for aesthetics as ethics, positing aesthetics as a significant demonstration of ethical theory. Artistic gestures are demonstrations of what man does when he need not do anything but set up a situation within which he can create what ought to be. Freedom in this case is literally the choice to make choices in an environment of one's own choosing. This conclusion offers implications for both aesthetics and ethics that can contribute to the increased understanding and profitable assimilation of human experience