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Philosophy and Esthetics

Philosophy and Esthetics. Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Does art reflect the values of the artist? Can a life be a work of art?. Esthetics Defined. The Esthetic Experience. Descriptive What is it? Pragmatic Is it useful? Emotive Do I like it?. The Object of Esthetic Experience.

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Philosophy and Esthetics

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  1. Philosophy and Esthetics Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Does art reflect the values of the artist? Can a life be a work of art?

  2. Esthetics Defined

  3. The Esthetic Experience • Descriptive • What is it? • Pragmatic • Is it useful? • Emotive • Do I like it?

  4. The Object of Esthetic Experience • Can anything be within the esthetic domain? • Is there a line between ‘fine’ and ‘useful’ art? • Are there levels of art? • Are natural phenomena within the domain of art?

  5. The Esthetic Continuum

  6. Esthetic Objects & Eternal Forms • Plato: the Form of the Good defines all appearances of the good in our experience.

  7. Suchness • All things as they are are subject to esthetic experience.

  8. Unified Experience • John Dewey: the daily interaction between the ‘live creature’ and ‘ethereal things.’ • Objects that take on meaning in our actual experience possess the esthetic dimension.

  9. Feeling (Expressionism) • Benedetto Croce: art is the expression of the artist’s emotion. • Art reflects the ‘intuitive’ state of mind of the creator. • It is the ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.’ • Art is ‘symbolic’ of our feelings. • “Music is feeling, not sound.” (Stevens) • “Beauty is objectified pleasure.” (Santayana)

  10. Existential Possiblities • The art object is pure possibility. • Art is a presentation (not representation). • Art is real, not an image of the real.

  11. Three Controversial Issues • Subjectivism vs. Objectivism • Are esthetic judgments subjective, objective, or a combination of the two? • Art and Knowledge • What is the relation between art and epistemology? • Art and Morality • Should art serve a moral/ethical end?

  12. Subjectivism • Art objects possess no esthetic qualities—art is in the eye of the beholder. • Cultural values determine esthetic experience. • Historical conditions, and therefore esthetic judgments are always in flux.

  13. Objectivism • Absolutists: The harmony of imagination and universal judgment prove that the esthetic realm is external to us. • Pragmatists: The fact that art objects produce esthetic responses proves that they themselves have esthetic quality. • Rationalists: Good art pleases everyone, which proves its objective truth.

  14. Art and Knowledge • Can art teach me something of value? • My intuitive experience with art teaches me without need of reason

  15. Art and Morality • Should art serve a social purpose? • Should art be a morality-producing enterprise? • Should art be subject to censorship?

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