Abstract

My contribution begins with the observation that aesthetics has been conceived since Baumgarten on the basis of experimental procedures. Rather than, in the veine of Fechner’s works, taking the experimental methods of the natural sciences as a measure for the »science of sensual knowledge and representation« (Baumgarten) or for the working on the limits of sense, I try to analyze more attentively the genuine forms of aesthetical experimentation. With Adorno, one can differentiate between three historical phases of aesthetic experimentation. Lyotard claims that philosophy today should become experimental, following an experimentalization in the arts. But how could aesthetic experiments prepare the grounds for artistic developments?