Troitskaya, Anna A., Troitskiy, Sergey A. (2017) “Nadezhda Woytinskaya’s Article about Aristotelianism”. Voprosy Filosofii, Vol. 7 (2017), pp.181-191

Abstract

This paper is based on archival data (Woytinskaya's paper Aristotelianism, her notes and biographical documents, stored at the Manuscript Department, National Library of Russia). There are also commentaries and notes to Woytinskaya's Aristotelianism made by the author of the paper. The paper contains biographical information about Nadezhda Woytinskaya and the analysis of the most important and interesting points of her theory. Her art theory and history are based on the philosophy of art. She describes all the transformations, which take place in the art history, as alternations of Platonism and Aristotelianism. However, Platonism is not just Plato's philosophy (the same is true for Aristotelianism). This generalization allows Nadezhda Woytinskaya to demonstrate similarities between Aristotelianism and Baroque thought, for example, or between Aristotelianism and Nietzsche's philosophy. While analyzing art history, Woytinskaya rejects theory of progress and describes Aristotle's regressive method. She also demonstrates, how Aristotle and Plato's proto-aesthetic categories have been changed in later philosophical and aesthetic theories.