Hanslicks Aesthetic and its Austrian Context

Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship J 1995 Hanslick`s Aesthetics and its Austrian Context Christoph LANDERER 09.10.2000 The project is dedicated to Eduard Hanslick`s musical aesthetics as expressed in his classic tratise Vom Musikalisch-Schönen (VMS; new English translation `On the musically Beautiful` by Geoffrey Payzant 1986). The project`s main aim is to reveal both the impact of Austrian intellectual history on VMS as well as VMS` impact on Austrian thinking in the late 19th and early 20th century. Research on the field of VMS and its intellectual history was for long dominated by the German intellectual tradition. German classicism and romanticism, German idealism and formalism were the main objects of investigation. It is since about 10 years that a new research trend is emerging which strongly focusses on the Austrian intellectual tradition. Recent research has proclaimed a new role for Austrian philosophy and its subject nowadays is not only Herbartianism but also Bolzanism which has strongly been neglected. Beside philosophy, there are also other parts of intellectual life in Austria which seem to have had a certain impact on the aesthetics of VMS like music criticism and theory of law. The impact of these Austrian intellectual sources shall be investigated in detail. VMS` impact on Austrian thinking is of particular interest with respect to the traditions of antipsychologism and purism in Viennese modernism as well as in modem Austrian philosophy. There are important methodological connections with Schoenberg and also with Kelsen which demand further research. VMS also influenced Popper and Wittgenstein in central domains of their philosophy in a way which shall be investigated in detail. The project is open to many other questions which help for a better understanding of VMS and its position in Austrian culture and Austrian thinking in general.