Yuriko Saito
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199278350
- eISBN:
- 9780191707001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278350.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter argues for the need for everyday aesthetics for filling the lacunae created by prevailing Western aesthetic theories that are primarily concerned with paradigmatic Western art and ...
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This chapter argues for the need for everyday aesthetics for filling the lacunae created by prevailing Western aesthetic theories that are primarily concerned with paradigmatic Western art and memorable aesthetic experiences. Even with an expanded scope of art to include more recent art — such as environmental art and art of the everyday, and non-Western art like the Japanese tea ceremony — everyday objects, environments, and phenomena often do not share art-making characteristics, making them seem either second-rate ‘wannabe’ art or not worthy of investigation. However, confining the aesthetic to art-making features or standout experiences is misleading and deprives us of an opportunity to explore a rich array of aesthetically relevant and significant issues. The twofold mission of everyday aesthetics is to highlight the extraordinary aesthetic potential of the most ordinary everyday experience and, at the same time, to analyze our ordinary aesthetic reaction in its everyday mode.Less
This chapter argues for the need for everyday aesthetics for filling the lacunae created by prevailing Western aesthetic theories that are primarily concerned with paradigmatic Western art and memorable aesthetic experiences. Even with an expanded scope of art to include more recent art — such as environmental art and art of the everyday, and non-Western art like the Japanese tea ceremony — everyday objects, environments, and phenomena often do not share art-making characteristics, making them seem either second-rate ‘wannabe’ art or not worthy of investigation. However, confining the aesthetic to art-making features or standout experiences is misleading and deprives us of an opportunity to explore a rich array of aesthetically relevant and significant issues. The twofold mission of everyday aesthetics is to highlight the extraordinary aesthetic potential of the most ordinary everyday experience and, at the same time, to analyze our ordinary aesthetic reaction in its everyday mode.
Glenn Parsons and Allen Carlson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199205240
- eISBN:
- 9780191709296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199205240.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter considers the realm of ‘everyday aesthetics’. The project of ‘everyday aesthetics’ provides a conception of aesthetic experience that better reflects its pervasiveness. The notion of ...
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This chapter considers the realm of ‘everyday aesthetics’. The project of ‘everyday aesthetics’ provides a conception of aesthetic experience that better reflects its pervasiveness. The notion of Functional Beauty is discussed in relation to this project. It is argued that the concept of Functional Beauty is not only applicable to everyday things, but offers a more cogent and defensible framework for understanding everyday aesthetics than other current approaches.Less
This chapter considers the realm of ‘everyday aesthetics’. The project of ‘everyday aesthetics’ provides a conception of aesthetic experience that better reflects its pervasiveness. The notion of Functional Beauty is discussed in relation to this project. It is argued that the concept of Functional Beauty is not only applicable to everyday things, but offers a more cogent and defensible framework for understanding everyday aesthetics than other current approaches.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199210688
- eISBN:
- 9780191705762
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199210688.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter provides a sustained phenomenological development of Kant's aesthetics of beauty and theory of art. This allows both aesthetic experience and art's distinctive articulation of it to be ...
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This chapter provides a sustained phenomenological development of Kant's aesthetics of beauty and theory of art. This allows both aesthetic experience and art's distinctive articulation of it to be disclosed in great detail. Importance is assigned to the harmony of imagination and understanding as the basis of aesthetic experience, and to disinterestedness as a logical criterion of it. The chapter then outlines briefly a theory of artistic beauty derived from Kant's general position, and then goes on to more sustained consideration of his theory of art. Special attention is paid to the notions of originality and exemplariness as a basis for canonic value, and to the special character of those ‘aesthetic ideas’, which are central to Kant's account of the art object.Less
This chapter provides a sustained phenomenological development of Kant's aesthetics of beauty and theory of art. This allows both aesthetic experience and art's distinctive articulation of it to be disclosed in great detail. Importance is assigned to the harmony of imagination and understanding as the basis of aesthetic experience, and to disinterestedness as a logical criterion of it. The chapter then outlines briefly a theory of artistic beauty derived from Kant's general position, and then goes on to more sustained consideration of his theory of art. Special attention is paid to the notions of originality and exemplariness as a basis for canonic value, and to the special character of those ‘aesthetic ideas’, which are central to Kant's account of the art object.
Jerrold Levinson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199206179
- eISBN:
- 9780191709982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206179.003.0022
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This essay explores Schopenhauer's relationship to Kant, and stresses the extent to which the great pessimist's aesthetic philosophy relies on Kant's metaphysics even more than it does on Kant's ...
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This essay explores Schopenhauer's relationship to Kant, and stresses the extent to which the great pessimist's aesthetic philosophy relies on Kant's metaphysics even more than it does on Kant's aesthetics. It highlights the breadth of Schopenhauer's vision of the role of art and of the liberating aesthetic experiences it makes possible. It addresses the puzzle of how the art of music — which according to Schopenhauer presents us with blind, ceaseless, and hateful willing in its most unvarnished form — can yet provide aesthetic experience of the highest order, justifying Schopenhauer's according to music the foremost position among the arts.Less
This essay explores Schopenhauer's relationship to Kant, and stresses the extent to which the great pessimist's aesthetic philosophy relies on Kant's metaphysics even more than it does on Kant's aesthetics. It highlights the breadth of Schopenhauer's vision of the role of art and of the liberating aesthetic experiences it makes possible. It addresses the puzzle of how the art of music — which according to Schopenhauer presents us with blind, ceaseless, and hateful willing in its most unvarnished form — can yet provide aesthetic experience of the highest order, justifying Schopenhauer's according to music the foremost position among the arts.
Arthur P. Shimamura and Stephen E. Palmer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199732142
- eISBN:
- 9780199918485
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732142.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
What do we do when we view a work of art? What does it mean to have an “aesthetic” experience? Are such experiences purely in the eye (and brain) of the beholder? Such questions have entertained ...
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What do we do when we view a work of art? What does it mean to have an “aesthetic” experience? Are such experiences purely in the eye (and brain) of the beholder? Such questions have entertained philosophers for millennia and psychologists for over a century. More recently, with the advent of functional neuroimaging methods, a handful of ambitious brain scientists have begun to explore the neural correlates of such experiences. The notion of aesthetics is generally linked to the way art evokes an hedonic response—we like it or we don't. Of course, a multitude of factors can influence such judgments, such as personal interest, past experience, prior knowledge, and cultural biases. In this book, philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists were asked to address the nature of aesthetic experiences from their own discipline's perspective. In particular, the scholars were asked to consider whether a multidisciplinary approach, an aesthetic science, could help connect mind, brain, and aesthetics. As such, this book offers an introduction to the way art is perceived, interpreted, and felt and approaches these mindful events from a multidisciplinary perspective.Less
What do we do when we view a work of art? What does it mean to have an “aesthetic” experience? Are such experiences purely in the eye (and brain) of the beholder? Such questions have entertained philosophers for millennia and psychologists for over a century. More recently, with the advent of functional neuroimaging methods, a handful of ambitious brain scientists have begun to explore the neural correlates of such experiences. The notion of aesthetics is generally linked to the way art evokes an hedonic response—we like it or we don't. Of course, a multitude of factors can influence such judgments, such as personal interest, past experience, prior knowledge, and cultural biases. In this book, philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists were asked to address the nature of aesthetic experiences from their own discipline's perspective. In particular, the scholars were asked to consider whether a multidisciplinary approach, an aesthetic science, could help connect mind, brain, and aesthetics. As such, this book offers an introduction to the way art is perceived, interpreted, and felt and approaches these mindful events from a multidisciplinary perspective.
Paul J. Locher
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199732142
- eISBN:
- 9780199918485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732142.003.0040
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the contribution that recent experimental research has made to the understanding of a beholder’s aesthetic experience with visual art. The ...
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The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the contribution that recent experimental research has made to the understanding of a beholder’s aesthetic experience with visual art. The findings presented demonstrate that this experience is driven by a complex interaction among characteristics of an art work (e.g., a painting’s pictorial features, structural organization, artistic style, thematic content, and presentation format) and those of a viewer (e.g., his or her personality, personal history, cognitive abilities, knowledge about art). The influences of the physical (e.g., museum setting) and social contexts (e.g., viewing art alone or with friends) on the experience are also described. A secondary purpose of the review is to acquaint the reader with the variety of methodological procedures and techniques (e.g., eye-fixation recording techniques, psychophysiological approaches, techniques used to manipulate the structural organization of a painting) used to acquire this information. Findings are examined within the frameworks of theoretical models and concepts that explain the processes underlying a viewer’s perceptual/cognitive reactions to and aesthetic evaluation of art which occur from the initial glance at a work across the time course of an aesthetic experience with it.Less
The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the contribution that recent experimental research has made to the understanding of a beholder’s aesthetic experience with visual art. The findings presented demonstrate that this experience is driven by a complex interaction among characteristics of an art work (e.g., a painting’s pictorial features, structural organization, artistic style, thematic content, and presentation format) and those of a viewer (e.g., his or her personality, personal history, cognitive abilities, knowledge about art). The influences of the physical (e.g., museum setting) and social contexts (e.g., viewing art alone or with friends) on the experience are also described. A secondary purpose of the review is to acquaint the reader with the variety of methodological procedures and techniques (e.g., eye-fixation recording techniques, psychophysiological approaches, techniques used to manipulate the structural organization of a painting) used to acquire this information. Findings are examined within the frameworks of theoretical models and concepts that explain the processes underlying a viewer’s perceptual/cognitive reactions to and aesthetic evaluation of art which occur from the initial glance at a work across the time course of an aesthetic experience with it.
Jeffrey Morrison
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159124
- eISBN:
- 9780191673504
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159124.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
The consistent popularity of Johann Joachim Winckelmann in Rome was a significant attractor for many visitors. This chapter explains how and why Winckelmann acted as focal point for Italian ...
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The consistent popularity of Johann Joachim Winckelmann in Rome was a significant attractor for many visitors. This chapter explains how and why Winckelmann acted as focal point for Italian travellers interested in art. It attempts to determine the key components of Winckelmann's responses to art and how those responses explain why he was able to capture attention and attract patronage during his time in Rome. It also compares and contrasts Winckelman's and Roman Ingarden's interest of aesthetic education and art reception. It then attempts to differentiate Winckelmann's expression of aesthetic experience from that of his pupils.Less
The consistent popularity of Johann Joachim Winckelmann in Rome was a significant attractor for many visitors. This chapter explains how and why Winckelmann acted as focal point for Italian travellers interested in art. It attempts to determine the key components of Winckelmann's responses to art and how those responses explain why he was able to capture attention and attract patronage during his time in Rome. It also compares and contrasts Winckelman's and Roman Ingarden's interest of aesthetic education and art reception. It then attempts to differentiate Winckelmann's expression of aesthetic experience from that of his pupils.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199244973
- eISBN:
- 9780191697425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244973.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter attempts to articulate aesthetic experience and art in relation to ontological reciprocity. Section I elaborates and comments upon Gadamer's critique of formalism, with a view to ...
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This chapter attempts to articulate aesthetic experience and art in relation to ontological reciprocity. Section I elaborates and comments upon Gadamer's critique of formalism, with a view to highlighting its difficulties. It then argues in Section II that, whilst a formalist aesthetic is indeed a valid mode of experiencing art, Gadamer's content-orientated approach can be modified and extended so as to reveal profounder and more significant aspects to such experience.Less
This chapter attempts to articulate aesthetic experience and art in relation to ontological reciprocity. Section I elaborates and comments upon Gadamer's critique of formalism, with a view to highlighting its difficulties. It then argues in Section II that, whilst a formalist aesthetic is indeed a valid mode of experiencing art, Gadamer's content-orientated approach can be modified and extended so as to reveal profounder and more significant aspects to such experience.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199244973
- eISBN:
- 9780191697425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244973.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter addresses the relation between self-consciousness, aesthetic experience, and artifice in general. Section I defines the needs of self-consciousness; Section II reiterates the scope of ...
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This chapter addresses the relation between self-consciousness, aesthetic experience, and artifice in general. Section I defines the needs of self-consciousness; Section II reiterates the scope of the aesthetic domain; and Sections III and IV, respectively, consider how aesthetic experience (especially in relation to artifice) enhances and reflects the interaction of necessary factors in self-consciousness.Less
This chapter addresses the relation between self-consciousness, aesthetic experience, and artifice in general. Section I defines the needs of self-consciousness; Section II reiterates the scope of the aesthetic domain; and Sections III and IV, respectively, consider how aesthetic experience (especially in relation to artifice) enhances and reflects the interaction of necessary factors in self-consciousness.
Stephen Davies
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199658541
- eISBN:
- 9780191746253
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199658541.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Science
This chapter defends a broad view of the aesthetic—experiences of the beautiful or the sublime—against two widely accepted alternatives. The first equates the aesthetic with all pleasurable ...
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This chapter defends a broad view of the aesthetic—experiences of the beautiful or the sublime—against two widely accepted alternatives. The first equates the aesthetic with all pleasurable perception-based experiences. This account is too broad. Such pleasure does not always derive from the beauty or sublimity of the object of perception. By this account, even insects would be aestheticians, but it is argued that most animals are not appreciators of beauty. The second view derives from Kant. It is rejected for confining the aesthetic to largely formal properties and for requiring complexity in both the aesthetic object and the manner of its cognitive apprehension. Aesthetic appreciation can involve all the senses and encompass the everyday. We can also take aesthetic pleasure in how an object realizes its function. Aesthetic experience often is like an action-guiding emotion rather than requiring disinterested contemplation.Less
This chapter defends a broad view of the aesthetic—experiences of the beautiful or the sublime—against two widely accepted alternatives. The first equates the aesthetic with all pleasurable perception-based experiences. This account is too broad. Such pleasure does not always derive from the beauty or sublimity of the object of perception. By this account, even insects would be aestheticians, but it is argued that most animals are not appreciators of beauty. The second view derives from Kant. It is rejected for confining the aesthetic to largely formal properties and for requiring complexity in both the aesthetic object and the manner of its cognitive apprehension. Aesthetic appreciation can involve all the senses and encompass the everyday. We can also take aesthetic pleasure in how an object realizes its function. Aesthetic experience often is like an action-guiding emotion rather than requiring disinterested contemplation.
Elisabeth Schellekens
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199691517
- eISBN:
- 9780191731815
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691517.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Mind
One of the reasons many philosophers are sceptical about empirical approaches to aesthetics is the perception that philosophically loaded terms are employed in rather liberal ways. This scepticism is ...
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One of the reasons many philosophers are sceptical about empirical approaches to aesthetics is the perception that philosophically loaded terms are employed in rather liberal ways. This scepticism is founded on the impression that the concepts at the heart of aesthetic analysis – such as emotion, beauty or art – seem often to be applied without sufficient attention being paid to exactly what things or events these concepts refer to, or to the ambiguities surrounding the instantiation of many such concepts. For example, in this collection alone, such a mismatch between the material to be analysed and the methodologies employed for the analysis is observed in several places.1 To be sure, not all of these observations are carried from the position of an a priori rejection of the application of scientific programmes to aesthetics. A consistent theme nonetheless is the way that the concepts deployed in empirical analyses seem inadequate to the task of capturing the full depth and breadth of the relevant experience.Less
One of the reasons many philosophers are sceptical about empirical approaches to aesthetics is the perception that philosophically loaded terms are employed in rather liberal ways. This scepticism is founded on the impression that the concepts at the heart of aesthetic analysis – such as emotion, beauty or art – seem often to be applied without sufficient attention being paid to exactly what things or events these concepts refer to, or to the ambiguities surrounding the instantiation of many such concepts. For example, in this collection alone, such a mismatch between the material to be analysed and the methodologies employed for the analysis is observed in several places.1 To be sure, not all of these observations are carried from the position of an a priori rejection of the application of scientific programmes to aesthetics. A consistent theme nonetheless is the way that the concepts deployed in empirical analyses seem inadequate to the task of capturing the full depth and breadth of the relevant experience.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199244973
- eISBN:
- 9780191697425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244973.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
To be alienated is to be estranged from something. In the case of abstract art, its critics have held that such works are alienated in the sense of embodying a flight from reality into a vacuous ...
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To be alienated is to be estranged from something. In the case of abstract art, its critics have held that such works are alienated in the sense of embodying a flight from reality into a vacuous realm of theory, which renders them unintelligible to the majority of people. This chapter argues that the former claim is true only in a restricted sense, and that, if freed from this restriction, the latter claim need not apply. Section I outlines a theory of alienation inspired by Schiller, but derived substantially from Merleau-Ponty and Hegel, with some nods towards Marx and Heidegger. Section II relates this to the theoretical justifications offered by some abstract artists for their work, and suggests that, whilst such theories do indeed involve an element of alienation, this is irrelevant from an aesthetic point of view. Section III argues further that, grounded in terms of a complex notion of aesthetic experience, abstract artworks actually turn out to be disalienating in both ontological and political terms.Less
To be alienated is to be estranged from something. In the case of abstract art, its critics have held that such works are alienated in the sense of embodying a flight from reality into a vacuous realm of theory, which renders them unintelligible to the majority of people. This chapter argues that the former claim is true only in a restricted sense, and that, if freed from this restriction, the latter claim need not apply. Section I outlines a theory of alienation inspired by Schiller, but derived substantially from Merleau-Ponty and Hegel, with some nods towards Marx and Heidegger. Section II relates this to the theoretical justifications offered by some abstract artists for their work, and suggests that, whilst such theories do indeed involve an element of alienation, this is irrelevant from an aesthetic point of view. Section III argues further that, grounded in terms of a complex notion of aesthetic experience, abstract artworks actually turn out to be disalienating in both ontological and political terms.
Francis Steen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195306361
- eISBN:
- 9780199851034
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306361.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter asks the question: Why is it that only human beings spend time and effort to produce and acquire aesthetic experience? The chapter focuses on the rote of juxtapositions, bisociations, ...
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This chapter asks the question: Why is it that only human beings spend time and effort to produce and acquire aesthetic experience? The chapter focuses on the rote of juxtapositions, bisociations, and blends in human cognition, and proposes that symbolic abilities are a critical basis for these kinds of mental operations. Symbolic juxtapositions force further juxtapositions of correlated emotional responses, which are presumably independent of the logic of symbolic juxtaposition. These symbolic juxtapositions can thereby induce emergent and highly novel emotional experiences. In art, we recognize two key elements: an extraction from direct instrumental communication, and a duplicitous logic of representation. Consistent with their being capacities that require considerable training and cultural support to develop, there is wide individual and cultural variability in artistic phenomena. Yet despite this cultural boundedness and a fundamental break with biology, there is surprising species universality as well. Even though artistic expression does not “come naturally”, as does language and much social behavior, it is essentially culturally universal in some form or other.Less
This chapter asks the question: Why is it that only human beings spend time and effort to produce and acquire aesthetic experience? The chapter focuses on the rote of juxtapositions, bisociations, and blends in human cognition, and proposes that symbolic abilities are a critical basis for these kinds of mental operations. Symbolic juxtapositions force further juxtapositions of correlated emotional responses, which are presumably independent of the logic of symbolic juxtaposition. These symbolic juxtapositions can thereby induce emergent and highly novel emotional experiences. In art, we recognize two key elements: an extraction from direct instrumental communication, and a duplicitous logic of representation. Consistent with their being capacities that require considerable training and cultural support to develop, there is wide individual and cultural variability in artistic phenomena. Yet despite this cultural boundedness and a fundamental break with biology, there is surprising species universality as well. Even though artistic expression does not “come naturally”, as does language and much social behavior, it is essentially culturally universal in some form or other.
G. Gabrielle Starr
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019316
- eISBN:
- 9780262315449
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019316.001.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Research and Theory
This book argues that understanding the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience can reshape our conceptions of aesthetics and the arts. Drawing on the tools of both cognitive neuroscience and ...
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This book argues that understanding the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience can reshape our conceptions of aesthetics and the arts. Drawing on the tools of both cognitive neuroscience and traditional humanist inquiry, the book shows that neuroaesthetics offers a new model for understanding the dynamic and changing features of aesthetic life, the relationships among the arts, and how individual differences in aesthetic judgment shape the varieties of aesthetic experience. The book proposes that aesthetic experience relies on a distributed neural architecture—a set of brain areas involved in emotion, perception, imagery, memory, and language. More important, it emerges from networked interactions, intricately connected and coordinated brain systems that together form a flexible architecture enabling us to develop new arts and to see the world around us differently. Focusing on the “sister arts” of poetry, painting, and music, the book builds and tests a neural model of aesthetic experience valid across all the arts. Asking why works that address different senses using different means seem to produce the same set of feelings, the book examines particular works of art in a range of media, including a poem by Keats, a painting by van Gogh, a sculpture by Bernini, and Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.Less
This book argues that understanding the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience can reshape our conceptions of aesthetics and the arts. Drawing on the tools of both cognitive neuroscience and traditional humanist inquiry, the book shows that neuroaesthetics offers a new model for understanding the dynamic and changing features of aesthetic life, the relationships among the arts, and how individual differences in aesthetic judgment shape the varieties of aesthetic experience. The book proposes that aesthetic experience relies on a distributed neural architecture—a set of brain areas involved in emotion, perception, imagery, memory, and language. More important, it emerges from networked interactions, intricately connected and coordinated brain systems that together form a flexible architecture enabling us to develop new arts and to see the world around us differently. Focusing on the “sister arts” of poetry, painting, and music, the book builds and tests a neural model of aesthetic experience valid across all the arts. Asking why works that address different senses using different means seem to produce the same set of feelings, the book examines particular works of art in a range of media, including a poem by Keats, a painting by van Gogh, a sculpture by Bernini, and Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.
G. Gabrielle Starr
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019316
- eISBN:
- 9780262315449
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019316.003.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Research and Theory
The Introduction talks about how this book came to be written. This book is born of a belief that understanding the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience—not just the experience of beauty or ...
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The Introduction talks about how this book came to be written. This book is born of a belief that understanding the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience—not just the experience of beauty or wonderment, but the other pleasures and displeasures of the arts and the natural world—can reshape our understanding of aesthetics and of the arts. The book asks: to what extent are the pleasures of poetry, painting, music, and the other arts parallel? How do the emotions of aesthetic experience relate to those of the rest of daily life? What role does imagery play across the arts? How do the differences that make us individuals shape aesthetic experience? What do aesthetic experiences say about how we think? What kind of knowledge might aesthetic experience bring? Finally, the Introduction briefly sketches the historical understanding of the connections between and among music, painting, and poetry in a number of areas: their subjects, their methods, the ways in which they move the emotions, the kinds of pleasure.Less
The Introduction talks about how this book came to be written. This book is born of a belief that understanding the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience—not just the experience of beauty or wonderment, but the other pleasures and displeasures of the arts and the natural world—can reshape our understanding of aesthetics and of the arts. The book asks: to what extent are the pleasures of poetry, painting, music, and the other arts parallel? How do the emotions of aesthetic experience relate to those of the rest of daily life? What role does imagery play across the arts? How do the differences that make us individuals shape aesthetic experience? What do aesthetic experiences say about how we think? What kind of knowledge might aesthetic experience bring? Finally, the Introduction briefly sketches the historical understanding of the connections between and among music, painting, and poetry in a number of areas: their subjects, their methods, the ways in which they move the emotions, the kinds of pleasure.
G. Gabrielle Starr
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019316
- eISBN:
- 9780262315449
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019316.003.0002
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Research and Theory
This chapter explores subjective variations in three ways: the variety of aesthetic objects, the variety of emotions associated with aesthetic experience, and the differing ways in which those ...
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This chapter explores subjective variations in three ways: the variety of aesthetic objects, the variety of emotions associated with aesthetic experience, and the differing ways in which those emotions are processed. The chapter also tries to describe what makes it possible to use what we know about visual and aural pleasures to create a model for aesthetics. Emotion is key to aesthetic experience, and as it shows in the first section here, the emotions of aesthetic life exhibit characteristics that may subtly distinguish them from those of everyday life.Less
This chapter explores subjective variations in three ways: the variety of aesthetic objects, the variety of emotions associated with aesthetic experience, and the differing ways in which those emotions are processed. The chapter also tries to describe what makes it possible to use what we know about visual and aural pleasures to create a model for aesthetics. Emotion is key to aesthetic experience, and as it shows in the first section here, the emotions of aesthetic life exhibit characteristics that may subtly distinguish them from those of everyday life.
Peter Poellner
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199583676
- eISBN:
- 9780191745294
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583676.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter seeks to clarify the normative grounds and some of the contents of Nietzsche's evaluative commitments. It is argued that attempts to ground these commitments in the psychology of the ...
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This chapter seeks to clarify the normative grounds and some of the contents of Nietzsche's evaluative commitments. It is argued that attempts to ground these commitments in the psychology of the will to power are incomplete, since, on the plausible assumption that the will to power is a type of second-order desire, it generates insufficient constraints with respect to first-order evaluation. Nietzsche, however, is clearly committed to evaluative distinctions among first-order ends and values, upon which, in his view, the value of specific instances of will to power partly depends. It is argued that Nietzsche's reasons for evaluative distinctions among first-order values are ultimately to be found in intentional affectivity, more specifically in essentially world-involving affective experiences which are best analysed as aesthetic in a broad, but clearly delimited sense. Nietzsche's ethics can therefore be said to be aestheticist. A number of typical examples from Nietzsche's texts are analysed in order to demonstrate the fecundity of this approach for understanding the contents of Nietzsche's own ethical and other evaluative commitments. The final sections of the chapter seek to show that and why the most significant positive and negative values are, for Nietzsche, essentially associated with human or relevantly similar subjectivity. While his ideas and arguments on this issue warrant the judgement that Nietzsche's ethics is humanist, his humanism differs from mainstream enlightenment humanism — say, of Kantian provenance — in important and illuminating ways.Less
This chapter seeks to clarify the normative grounds and some of the contents of Nietzsche's evaluative commitments. It is argued that attempts to ground these commitments in the psychology of the will to power are incomplete, since, on the plausible assumption that the will to power is a type of second-order desire, it generates insufficient constraints with respect to first-order evaluation. Nietzsche, however, is clearly committed to evaluative distinctions among first-order ends and values, upon which, in his view, the value of specific instances of will to power partly depends. It is argued that Nietzsche's reasons for evaluative distinctions among first-order values are ultimately to be found in intentional affectivity, more specifically in essentially world-involving affective experiences which are best analysed as aesthetic in a broad, but clearly delimited sense. Nietzsche's ethics can therefore be said to be aestheticist. A number of typical examples from Nietzsche's texts are analysed in order to demonstrate the fecundity of this approach for understanding the contents of Nietzsche's own ethical and other evaluative commitments. The final sections of the chapter seek to show that and why the most significant positive and negative values are, for Nietzsche, essentially associated with human or relevantly similar subjectivity. While his ideas and arguments on this issue warrant the judgement that Nietzsche's ethics is humanist, his humanism differs from mainstream enlightenment humanism — say, of Kantian provenance — in important and illuminating ways.
Caroline Franks Davis
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198250012
- eISBN:
- 9780191681233
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198250012.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter discusses several ‘arguments from religious experience’ which have had wide appeal. Some of them were not originally intended as ‘arguments from religious experience’ in the full sense, ...
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This chapter discusses several ‘arguments from religious experience’ which have had wide appeal. Some of them were not originally intended as ‘arguments from religious experience’ in the full sense, but they can be treated as such because they represent common lines of argument about religious experience. Most of them have the following shortcomings: they are all arguments for the existence of (or for the reasonableness of belief in the existence of) the Judaeo-Christian God; they tend to take the empirical research for granted, which can seriously weaken their case; many proponents of arguments from religious experience appear to demand too much of religious experience. In this chapter, the following arguments from religious experience are examined: the analogy with aesthetic and moral experience; the analogy with sense perception; the ‘sense of a personal encounter’ argument; the ‘all experience is experiencing-as’ argument; and an argument using the concept of basic beliefs.Less
This chapter discusses several ‘arguments from religious experience’ which have had wide appeal. Some of them were not originally intended as ‘arguments from religious experience’ in the full sense, but they can be treated as such because they represent common lines of argument about religious experience. Most of them have the following shortcomings: they are all arguments for the existence of (or for the reasonableness of belief in the existence of) the Judaeo-Christian God; they tend to take the empirical research for granted, which can seriously weaken their case; many proponents of arguments from religious experience appear to demand too much of religious experience. In this chapter, the following arguments from religious experience are examined: the analogy with aesthetic and moral experience; the analogy with sense perception; the ‘sense of a personal encounter’ argument; the ‘all experience is experiencing-as’ argument; and an argument using the concept of basic beliefs.
Peter Uwe Hohendahl
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452369
- eISBN:
- 9780801469282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452369.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, along with his other writings, to see if his ideas are still relevant today. First published in 1970, Aesthetic Theory raises a number of ...
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This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, along with his other writings, to see if his ideas are still relevant today. First published in 1970, Aesthetic Theory raises a number of questions, such as the emphasis on the special status of the artwork for which Adorno uses the term “autonomy.” The new impulses in the contemporary discussion, readily associated with names such as Elaine Scarry and Peter de Bolla, require a rereading of Aesthetic Theory. This book focuses on the challenge to Adorno's Aesthetic Theory that comes today from different directions. It explores how the concept of aesthetic experience in Aesthetic Theory compares to the ideas of Scarry and de Bolla, and whether one can argue for the universal nature of aesthetic experience or universal aesthetic values and include Adorno in such an argument. Part I considers theoretical questions and approaches Aesthetic Theory from different perspectives. Part II discusses Adorno's literary criticism, and especially his engagement with specific works, authors, and historical periods.Less
This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, along with his other writings, to see if his ideas are still relevant today. First published in 1970, Aesthetic Theory raises a number of questions, such as the emphasis on the special status of the artwork for which Adorno uses the term “autonomy.” The new impulses in the contemporary discussion, readily associated with names such as Elaine Scarry and Peter de Bolla, require a rereading of Aesthetic Theory. This book focuses on the challenge to Adorno's Aesthetic Theory that comes today from different directions. It explores how the concept of aesthetic experience in Aesthetic Theory compares to the ideas of Scarry and de Bolla, and whether one can argue for the universal nature of aesthetic experience or universal aesthetic values and include Adorno in such an argument. Part I considers theoretical questions and approaches Aesthetic Theory from different perspectives. Part II discusses Adorno's literary criticism, and especially his engagement with specific works, authors, and historical periods.
G. Gabrielle Starr
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019316
- eISBN:
- 9780262315449
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019316.003.0004
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Research and Theory
This last chapter turns to the history of aesthetics and to particular exemplars of each of the Sister Arts. It does this so that it can pursue the explanatory and interpretative power of a dynamic ...
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This last chapter turns to the history of aesthetics and to particular exemplars of each of the Sister Arts. It does this so that it can pursue the explanatory and interpretative power of a dynamic and cognitive concept of aesthetic experience. So far, the book has proposed that motor imagery offers a promising route for modeling the aesthetic pleasures of poetry, music, and visual art, and the clearest case for understanding the complex ways in which imagery more broadly can enable the integration of and comparison between new areas of knowledge and experience. However, this model raises questions, both around imagery and concerning the dynamic character that the book posits is at the heart of these processes. All aesthetic experience must of necessity sometimes be left behind. Finally, the chapter proposes that something new.Less
This last chapter turns to the history of aesthetics and to particular exemplars of each of the Sister Arts. It does this so that it can pursue the explanatory and interpretative power of a dynamic and cognitive concept of aesthetic experience. So far, the book has proposed that motor imagery offers a promising route for modeling the aesthetic pleasures of poetry, music, and visual art, and the clearest case for understanding the complex ways in which imagery more broadly can enable the integration of and comparison between new areas of knowledge and experience. However, this model raises questions, both around imagery and concerning the dynamic character that the book posits is at the heart of these processes. All aesthetic experience must of necessity sometimes be left behind. Finally, the chapter proposes that something new.
