在西方美学发展的漫漫长河中,“美是什么”这一核心问题一直是美学家们所追逐的对象。他们因着自己所处的不同的社会环境所给予的回答也是各异的,因而,随着历史的发展,美学观念的核心也几经变化。本文主要论述两次美学观念的嬗变:一是古希腊时期苏格拉底对美学的人文化的改造;二是康德主体性美学对客体性美学的改造。 In the long course of the development of western aesthetics, the core issue of “what is beauty” has always been the target pursued by estheticians. The answers given to them by the different social environments in which they live are also different. Therefore, with the development of history, the core of aesthetic ideas has also changed in several ways. This article mainly discusses the transmutation of two aesthetic ideas: one is Socrates’ reconstruction of aesthetics and humanity in ancient Greece; the other is the transformation of Kant’s subjectivity aesthetics to the aesthetics of objects.