The Aesthetic Image on the Horizon of the Ethics of Love

This paper analyzes phenomenologically the value dimension in the contemplation of the aesthetic image in order to show how it enriches the openness of the self to the world and direct him to the calling for the ethical-cultural renewal, proposed by Husserl as the mission of philosophy. I will place this calling against the horizon of the Husserlian ethics of the absolute values of love, where ethical maturation is understood as reaching out outside oneself towards the good for the other qua other. The phenomenological analysis of the experience with aesthetic images brings to light its axiological dimension and, furthermore, the possibility to access other worlds of meaning. I claim that this aesthetical enrichment can facilitate or trigger a renewed insight of the own surrounding world, which is a condition for the awakening to the ultimate selfresponsibility required by phenomenology. This phenomenological appraisal of the aesthetic image can contribute to a deeper self-understanding of an ethical education that aims to respond to the contemporary cultural and political crises.