Category: Aesthetic Philosophy
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Expression and Emotion
Expression is a keyword when it comes to art, art criticism, art history, and artistic emotion. It is also vaguely defined and used frequently without much thought to its actual definition. Any word that is commonly used and nonspecific has problems, when it comes to expression the issues stem from application, more specifically, how expression…
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Aesthetic Engagement
Is aesthetic pleasure something spontaneous, or is it something intellectual? Primary reference papers: What exactly characterizes aesthetic engagement? In order to thoroughly examine this issue I am going to discuss four pertinent views on the subject. But before we dive in, let’s reflect briefly back onto Scruton this Philosophy of Wine. (If you have read…
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Art and Nature
The question now is how to judge this aesthetic when art and nature collide to create ‘naturalness in art’. Our issue is this…What is the difference between our aesthetic response to artificially wrought objects and our aesthetic response to naturally occurring objects? Primary reference papers: Art and nature are closely linked and perhaps always have…
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The Aesthetic Attitude
Does aesthetic contemplation demand a special attitude? Primary reference papers: I have talked before about Disinterestedness. The idea that you must remove yourself, your desires, your wants, needs, what you stand to gain, you experience and your personality from a judgment of aesthetic beauty. To decide if something is beautiful, and therefore universal, it needs…
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The Boundaries of the Aesthetic
Why are the objects of high art restricted to those perceived by the eye and the ear? Primary reference papers: While talking about aesthetics, how we perceive beauty, appreciate art, the senses tend to get categorized into two groups: the ‘higher’ senses of the eye and the ear, and the ‘lower’ senses of taste, smell,…
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On Judgement of Beauty
“Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.” -Thoreau Primary reference papers: I understand now what the tutor meant when he said that these are questions that could keep you awake at night, these infuriating and seemingly…