English Aesthetic Thought in the Context of British Philosophy: Stages and Transformations

This article examines the formation and transformation of English aesthetic thought within the framework of the British philosophical tradition. The study focuses on the development of key aesthetic concepts such as taste, imagination, the sublime, and beauty from eighteenth-century empiricism to analytic aesthetics and contemporary interdisciplinary approaches. The research employs a historical-philosophical method combined with conceptual analysis of major aesthetic theories articulated by British philosophers and theorists of art. The article demonstrates that English aesthetics did not emerge as an abstract speculative system but developed as a reflection on perceptual experience, moral sentiment, and cultural practices, closely connected with moral philosophy, literary criticism, and philosophy of language. The analysis reveals a consistent internal logic in the evolution of British aesthetics, moving from the problem of taste and sensibility toward the examination of artistic practices, institutional forms of art, and the linguistic conditions of aesthetic judgment. The article argues that the specificity of the British aesthetic tradition lies in its empirical orientation, emphasis on individual experience, and openness to interdisciplinary dialogue, which ensures its continued relevance for contemporary philosophy of culture and theory of art.