Abstract
In recent years, aesthetic education in Taiwan has received abundant government support. To implement aesthetic education effectively and make aesthetic experience widely appreciated by the general public, some solid theoretical foundations are needed. To confirm the enduring value of aesthetic experience to an individual, this study conducted literature analyses to explore the very genres (beauty or sublime) and categories (experiences triggered by art pieces, creative activities, nature or daily life) of aesthetic experience. In addition, the researcher further sorted out five dimensions of self/ego statuses generated within aesthetic experience: ＂self/egofulfillment,＂ ＂self/ego-dialectic,＂ ＂self/ego-integration,＂ ＂self/ego-actualization,＂ and ＂self/ ego-transcendence.＂ These five dimensions are states of single aesthetic experience and might possibly be a process of a certain kind of continuity. That is, it is a journey that goes from the state of high self-satisfaction to that of profound self-reflection, total self-awareness, and even to the state of forgetting the self/ego and no-self/ego. As understood from the literature, aesthetic experience points to boundless possibilities, unlocks opportunities for internal reflection and integration, enhances sensitivity as a valuable quality in life, and contains higher-order potentials for fostering individual self-realization and transcendence.