Abstract

The peculiar association of geographical terms like »south« and »north« with the philosophical term of aesthetics refers to the so called climatology, which denies the autonomy of art and explains its characteristics and its development by weather and other natural phenomena. On the one hand, various concepts of the European enlightenment are described, relating climate, mediated through the body, the life style or the work of men, to spiritual production. The main objective of the article is to demonstrate the development of climatology, its integration (Aufhebung) into Nietzsche’s physiological aestetics, into Worringer’s Stilpsychologie (psychology of style) as well as into the aestetics of Marx, who interprets the ideological superstructure as a reflex action of the social and economical basis. On the other hand, the repression of the (classical) aesthetics of the »south« by the (romantic) aestetics of the »north« is analysed. Thus removing itself more and more from its starting point, the »northern aesthetics« substitutes the notion of climate with that of nation and race.