AESTHETIC EDUCATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

AN ANALYSIS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HISTORICAL-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY AND LUKÁCSIAN PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article analyzes the importance of aesthetic education in the context of higher education, contrasting it with the technical-instrumental and market-driven logic that predominates in contemporary institutions. Based on the assumptions of Vygotsky's Historical-Cultural Psychology and György Lukács's philosophy, the work discusses how the fragmentation of knowledge and professional hyper-specialization contribute to the alienation and dehumanization of the subject. Through qualitative bibliographic research, the investigation explores the category of catharsis and the role of art as a means of objectification and self-awareness of humankind. The results indicate that art, by promoting the suspension of pragmatic daily life, allows university students to develop higher psychological functions and appropriate cultural meanings that transcend purely labor-related training. It concludes that the integration of the aesthetic dimension in higher education is essential for integral human formation, enabling the overcoming of alienation and the strengthening of critical and sensitive thinking. Thus, aesthetic education should not be seen as a curricular addendum, but as a central axis for the constitution of omnilateral subjects aware of their social reality.

Keywords: Aesthetic Education; Higher Education; Historical-Cultural Psychology; György Lukács; Human Development.