The classical conception of beauty and art

pp. 5-22

in: Joseph Kockelmans, Heidegger on art and art works, Berlin, Springer, 1985

Abstract

The Greeks had magnificent works of art, but they never developed an aesthetics in the modern sense. In Heidegger's view, this does not mean that the Greeks just wallowed in a murky brew of "lived experiences" which were supported neither by knowledge nor by concepts. "On the contrary, they had such an originally mature and luminous knowledge, such a passion for knowledge, that in their luminous state of knowing they had no need of "aesthetics'".⁶