Section 11
When thinking about the word “Aesthetics,” one immediately
thinks about questions like “What is a work of art?” This highlights the essence of aesthetics.
Aesthetics: the definition of aesthetics
To begin, the word, “aesthetics”
itself originates from the Greek word, “Aisthetikos,” which can be defined as
“of sense perception”. The philosophy of aesthetics can be summarized as the
study of beauty and taste, although the study of aesthetics is broad in scope. Aesthetics
can also be thought of as being a part of axiology which is defined as the
study of value and the value of judgements.
Pioneers in the study of Aesthetics:
During the 18th century,
prominent figures like Hume and Kant were influential theorist who published
works regarding the topic of aesthetics. During this time, they were mainly
making aesthetic judgements. Being more specific, both philosophers were
motivated by the question of whether our highly subjective and even irrational
responses to artwork and other beautiful objects can have any sort of
objectivity, according to Theodore Gracyk.
Immanuel Kant:
David Hume
Besides
writing about moral philosophy and theories
regarding emotion and thought, Hume
also wrote about the
aesthetic theory. Some of Hume’s work focus on the
aesthetics of taste, pleasure, utility, and pain which revolved more around the
experience of the person. That is why aesthetic subjectivism attracted Hume. In
his work, “Of the Standard of Taste” Hume argues that rules cannot be produced
regarding objects being tasteful. But there is a bit of an exception. When a
reliable critic of taste is sensible and unprejudiced then it can be considered objective.
Modern Aesthetics:
Croce is an important 19th
century influence on modern aesthetics. In Estetica, he presents and distinguishes
“concept from intuition.” Which means that art is first acknowledged as an
expression and then as intuition. Which is mainly how modern aesthetics is seen
today throughout pop culture.
Quiz Questions
1. From what culture is the word aesthetics
derived from?
2. During which century were Humes and Kant
making important contributions to aesthetics?
3. How would
Kant define aesthetics?
Discussion Questions
1. Are art and beauty essentially related?
2. Is
everything we see beautiful?
3. How can one measure the beauty of an object?
Sources:
https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_aesthetics.html
https://www.iep.utm.edu/aestheti/
Blog Post Comments:
"feelings of superiority of own power of reason as a supersensible faculty" - that's pretty cryptic. Isn't sublimity really just a perception of beauty of a majestic and only partly-expressible scale? Was Kant right to insist that it necessarily engages reason, as opposed to feeling?
ReplyDelete"When a reliable critic of taste is sensible and unprejudiced then it can be considered objective" - or better, I think, inte-subjective: that is, sensible and unprejudiced critics appeal to more of us, and predispose us to think their taste is not just theirs but many of ours too... and that makes their taste less idiosyncratically subjective.