The ontological foundations of aesthetic personal development in the philosophy of German romanticism

The paper examines the problem of understanding the phenomenon of aesthetic development of personality as a project of the ontological realization of man in the philosophy of the German Romantics. The article reveals the relationship between the aesthetic and ontological principles on the basis of historical-philosophical and hermeneutical approaches to the understanding of the concept of life in the philosophical ideas of the representatives of German Romanticism. The essence of the interpretation of the inner life of the aesthetic subject as a sensual spiritual experience associated with the pursuit of the infinite, absolute, transcendent is revealed. The figure of the genius acts as an onto-aesthetic subject who realizes the practice of self-creation of the inner life, different from the objective reality. It is concluded that the aesthetic development of personality in the philosophy of Romanticism is expressed in the desire of the onto-aesthetic subject in acts of creation to reveal the immanent-transcendent essence of universal life and the meaning of existence. This requires a transformation of thinking, the actualization of aesthetic (artistic) ways of self-expression, acting as ontological practices of “self-care”.