Sui limiti della dimostrazione puramente logica del valore estetico nell’Allgemeine Ästhetik (1901) di Jonas Cohn

Windelband’s and Rickert’s disciple, Jonas Cohn (1869-1947), published Allgemeine Ästhetik in 1901. This work has the merit of being essentially the only systematic investigation in the field of aesthetics undertaken by an exponent of the Baden Neo-Kantian school. With its highly rigorous character, on the one hand this work fine-tunes the results of several of Cohn’s previous studies (1894-1900) investigating the problem of beauty and art from a psycho-physiological point of view (openly confronting the composite currents of art psychology active in his time). On the other hand, Cohn contributes the problematic perspective of a “normative aesthetics” founding its premises and aims on the typical principles of the critical philosophy of values. The present contribution strives to account for the range of the question as it is presented in Cohn’s 1901 volume – where necessary also by drawing attention to some of his writings immediately following it.