The Current State of Aesthetics as a Scientific and Educational Discipline: The Results of the Seventh Yeremeyev Readings

The article presents an overview of the reports of the Seventh Yeremeyev Readings, a regular scientific event dedicated to research in the field of aesthetics and philosophy of culture, organized by the Aesthetics Section of the UrFU Department of Philosophy. The theme of the 2025 conference is related to understanding the traditions of the Sverdlovsk philosophical and aesthetic school in the context of global trends in the development of aesthetic science and education. The conference reports and discussions are presented in an analytical framework, providing a comprehensive overview. The focus is on identifying the directions of research in the field of Russian aesthetics in comparison to the thematic scope of international and European aesthetic congresses over the past decade. The analysis delves into the challenges of describing and conceptualizing aesthetic phenomena and values within Russian scientific discourse. Additionally, the discussion raises questions regarding the status of aesthetics as both a scientific discipline and a subject of a higher specialized education.The theoretical and methodological trends and gaps in the modern Russian philosophy of art are analyzed. The fundamental role of philosophical knowledge in the development of the entire complex of sciences on aesthetic and artistic phenomena is emphasized. The paper highlights the revival of interest in revisiting classical texts on aesthetics and the philosophy of art and outlines a clear need for a critical analysis of the plethora of methodologies that have emerged within the realm of non-classical philosophical thought, as well as a search for concepts that are relevant to the cultural landscape of the twenty-first century. This article also delves into the prospects for future research in the field of aesthetic theory. A number of differences have been noted between the issues of readings and the thematic structure of research by the global aesthetic community: first, recent international aesthetic congresses are often dominated by reports analyzing the impact of the digital environment and artificial intelligence, as well as new media and communication technologies on the development of aesthetic and artistic phenomena; secondly, the picture of the interaction of the entire spectrum of social, political, economic, and anthropological transformations of modern culture with aesthetic and artistic modifications, radical changes in their subject and semantic content, and the testing of new theoretical and methodological tools for the study of aesthetic and artistic spheres is much broader.