Interesting work on aesthetics

We have before us a truly interesting, passionately and vividly written book. The author boldly raises some fundamental questions of aesthetic science that have often been sidestepped in recent times. The central problem that has completely absorbed Burov's attention is the relationship between "the subject and content of art." Everything else is subordinate to this problem. What is said about the function of art is an illustration of the main thesis about the peculiar subject and content of art. In the first chapter, Burov criticizes the widespread view that the subject of art is the whole world and that its specificity arises not from the subject, but from the form of reproduction of life (the figurative form). Of course, the reflection of life in the "form of life itself," in a living, concrete, individual image, is a very important feature of art. But imagery is also inherent in science, photography, and the practical activities of people. After offering an interesting and accurate critique of Kant and Schiller on the one hand, and of some Soviet theorists on the other, Burov comes to the following conclusion: Imagery is not an essential specific feature of art. It explains nothing and must itself be explained. The whole point is in the specific subject matter of art, which gives rise to the specific figurative form. What is this subject matter? All true art