Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of beauty and taste. Aesthetics also focuses on art, particularly in terms of the values it expresses. Aesthetic values are express through judgments of taste and sensation. We can apply aesthetic principles to judge the quality and merit of art in many ways.
Principles of aesthetics
This book is a collection of lectures that the author gave at the University of Michigan. It aims to teach students about the meaning and nature of art. While it is design for students, it can appeal to anybody interested in an intelligent appreciation of art. The author aims to explain why we appreciate art and what we can do to improve our own art appreciation.
Aesthetic judgments are often fine-grained and internally conflicting. They are based in part on intellectual and partly on interpretive values. This means that what we judge is usually the meaning of the thing. Many modern aestheticians have argued that desire and will are almost irrelevant to the aesthetic experience. However, some 20th century thinkers, such as Mary Mothersill, have considered preference to be important for aesthetics.
Humans are naturally generous. Aesthetic expression is a way to show generosity. It is a way to make people feel good. Unlike most animals, humans have an instinct to express themselves. While this might make us feel good, it doesn’t mean that we should do it only for ourselves. Instead, we should do it because we love it.
Kant’s theory
Kant’s theory of aesthetics focuses on the concept of aesthetic experience. While Kant argued that aesthetic experience is universal, modern philosophers have followed or ignored this view. But they have not proven that aesthetic experience is universal. A cow, for example, may be uninterested in a painting, but it cannot disinterest in a cow.
The ancient Greeks and Pythagorean philosophers believed in the importance of symmetry. They stressed the importance of opposites, and they believed that human aesthetic preferences evolved to improve their reproductive success. In addition, they believed that the aesthetics of landscapes were important for human survival. Similarly, human physical attractiveness relied on symmetry and proportion.
While aesthetics can be defined as a branch of philosophy, it is more than just an academic field. It concerns the nature and value of art, human responses to natural objects, and the language of the beautiful and the ugly. Ultimately, it also concerns the nature and value of art, music, and literature.
Common sense
In philosophy, common sense has two distinct meanings. One interpretation proposes an animal soul. This concept explains the way in which the senses are join and enable us to discriminate among objects. This conception differs from basic sensory perception, which requires human rational thought. The other interpretation proposes the idea of a ‘universal aesthetics’.
The latter view is the most popular today. In the 17th century, Descartes criticized common sense as often used in the wrong way and advocated a more skeptical, logical approach. As a result, common sense became associated with the Enlightenment, whereas metaphysics was associated with the Ancien Regime.
Learn from your experience
Common sense is the feeling a person gets when they experience pleasure. It is also an important basis of aesthetics. It can help us judge what is beautiful and how to improve it. The most important thing is to learn from your experience. The more you can appreciate something, the more likely it is to appreciated. But this is not an easy task. You need to be willing to learn about the art and its underlying principles, so that your aesthetic experience will be more valuable.
The Scottish school of philosophy was particularly influential. They influenced American pragmatism and modern Thomism, and emphasized the epistemological importance of the sensus communis. While the Scottish school of philosophy emphasized the use of common sense in aesthetics, Immanuel Kant criticized its appeal to common sense.
In the past, the concept of aesthetics had linked with politics and culture. In fact, Herbert Marcuse argued that aesthetics has a political dimension, and that it is a political one. He also stressed defamiliarization, to stimulate political potential in a person. In this way, he expanded upon the aesthetics of Sylvia Wynter to include a human dimension and to incorporate feminist, decolonial, and counter poetic perspectives.
Sensory perception
Among the many ways aesthetics can experienced is through sensual engagement. In this way, art can be the center of the experience, and a person’s sensual perception can train and focused on. This kind of aesthetics referred to as sensibility, and it opens a wide range of possibilities for the arts. It is also important to note that the senses interconnected. Moreover, aesthetic artefacts can use to create a pedagogical or political experience.
The first step to sensuous engagement is to understand the role of emotion in aesthetics. A beautiful painting or sculpture can be more than just appealing to the eye; it can also transform how a person perceives the environment. For example, it can change how a person sees an object’s mass and density.
Analyzing a visual artwork
The next step in aesthetics is to recognize how the experience mediated by our mind. A person’s perceptual experience is shape by several different stages and involves important variables. The first stage involves analyzing a visual artwork, and this stage influenced by a person’s implicit knowledge or explicit knowledge. The second step is to assess the information processed, which is ultimately responsible for an aesthetic emotion.
While Kant, Hegel, and Mendelssohn all argued that aesthetics had little to do with proximal senses, the end of the twentieth century saw the revaluation of sensory perception in aesthetics. This view of aesthetics is rooted in the philosophy of perception, which recognizes the importance of the senses.
Nanay’s book employ’s philosophy of perception to do aesthetics. He introduces this notion of aesthetic attention to classic aesthetic debates on aesthetic experience, aesthetic attitude, and disinterest. The book also offers a new model of picture appreciation. And chapter 4 suggests a crucial amendment to orthodox thinking on aesthetic properties. Finally, Nanay’s approach to aesthetic attention has a wide scope and is very valuable.
Neuroscientific research on aesthetic perception has identified specific neural circuitry that processes hedonic responses from sensory input. It has also explored their functions and their interaction with other neural systems.
Judging artistic value
Judging artistic value involves evaluating the relative value of a work. The spectator’s feelings after viewing the work will help determine the relative worth. A sound judgment and deft taste are essential for judging the value of a work. It takes time to evaluate a work and a process.
Aesthetics are a highly subjective matter, and there are ongoing debates across the world over how best to judge it. Aesthetics also tend to vary by region. For example, people living in the West may value classical design, while those living in Eastern countries might not. This variability in aesthetic value can lead to radically different prices for works of art of the same genre or from different artists.
