Heidegger on aesthetic emotions: Stimmung and the artwork experience

Abstract

This paper is about Heidegger?s understanding of the artwork experience, with regard to the notion of Stimmung, which is to replace traditional conception of aesthetic emotion, that is, of aesthetic experience. Namely, Heidegger disregards modern discourse on cognitive powers of the soul, and so he also abandons the conception of aesthetic emotions. His critique of modern representational thinking leads to the notion of Stimmung, which, if related to the work of art, replaces the notion of aesthetic emotions, but also goes a step further. The notion of Stimmung in Heidegger?s thought is equally related to the production and reception of artworks. However, with regard to the reception, it implies the necessity of radical transformation of the way we feel and understand being, provoked by art. Finally, this notion is also related to the dialogue of thinking and poeticizing, since Heidegger ascribes it both to philosophy and art.