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Aesthetics
1. Definition And Key Questions
2. Prevailing Views
3. Philosophers And Texts
1. Definition And
Key Questions. Aesthetics is the study of beauty and art, their nature and
history. Among the many avenues of philosophical investigation are the
following: Is beauty an attribute of matter? Does beauty inhere in
objects, forming, as it were, a part of their essence? Or is beauty an
indefinable quality, an aspect of something which is pleasing to some but
not to others? What is the status of statements like, "She's beautiful,"
"That was a beautiful song," "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder",
"Mother Teresa is a beautiful person"? Is there moral and spiritual beauty
as well as "physical" beauty? Is beauty a Form or Idea, each material
manifestation in the everyday world simply being a reflection of it? And
what, exactly, is art? A non-conceptual expression of the nature of
things? A mere imitation of external objects? An emanation of deep will
and eros? A cathartic release? On what
grounds can we assert that beauty and art are either x or y,
are present in situation x or situation y?
2. Prevailing
Views. Plato: He divided aesthetics into the
visual arts (painting, sculpture, architecture), the literary arts (epic,
lyric, and dramatic poetry), and music. Since all things are imitations of
the eternal Forms, art is mere imagery, imitation of imitations. Physical
beauty is subordinate to mental beauty, but the former is the kind most
often experienced and appreciated by average men. At one point, Plato says
the truly beautiful is what is beneficial through the senses of sight and
hearing. Art is inferior to philosophy, he contends, and should be
regulated by the state. Aristotle: Art imitates objects. Tragedy
is an imitation of human action in which someone suffers disaster because
of some defect. The purpose of tragedy is to effect a pleasurable
catharsis of the emotions of pity and fear. Augustine: He denied the relativity
and subjectivity of beauty. Perception of beauty depends upon a normative
judgment of what comports to the ideal; thus, a sculptor or painter can
correct her work as she goes along, striving for perfection, and critics
can pass judgment on it. Aquinas: The
beautiful is that which pleases in the mere apprehension of
it. Nietzsche: Tragedy consists of two basic impulses: Dionysian and Apollonian
spirits; former an artistic, romantic, subjective approach to experience,
the latter a disposition calling for order, form, proportion. Art a great
"tonic" to life, proof of the will to power. Santayana: Beauty
is pleasure regarded as the quality of a thing. It is a value -- i.e., it
is not a perception of a matter of fact or of a relation: it is an
emotion, an affection of our volitional and appreciative
nature. Croce: Art is an expression of impressions (transformation of materials
of experience into intuitions of the concrete). Tolstoy: Art can be
harmful or beneficial depending on the degree to which it contributes to a
sense of fraternal love. Good art transmits simple feelings that draw
people together.
3. Philosophers And Texts.
Aristotle: Poetics; Rhetoric.
Augustine: Confessions; Concerning Order; On
Music.
Aquinas: Summa Theologica
Monroe
Beardsley: Aesthetics: Problems in the Philosophy of Criticism
Bernard
Bosanquet: History of Aesthetic Collingwood,
R.G.: The Principles of Art
Croce: Philosophy of the Spirit
Dewey:
Art As Experience
Kant: Critique of Judgment
Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy; The Will To
Power
Plato: Republic, Book X; Symposium;
Greater Hippias; Philebus.
Santayana: The Sense of Beauty
Stace,
W.T.: The Meaning of Beauty
Tolstoy: What Is Art?
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