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Aesthetics: Contemporary Theories. Last Week. Frank Sibley on Aesthetic Concepts (Reading 43). Aesthetic Terms. E.g. unified, balanced, integrated, lifeless, serene, sombre, dynamic, powerful, vivid, delicate, moving, trite, sentimental, tragic, graceful, dainty, elegant. Non-Aesthetic.
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Last Week • Frank Sibley on Aesthetic Concepts (Reading 43)
Aesthetic Terms • E.g. unified, balanced, integrated, lifeless, serene, sombre, dynamic, powerful, vivid, delicate, moving, trite, sentimental, tragic, graceful, dainty, elegant.
Non-Aesthetic • E.g. red, noisy (non-metaphorical), square, curved, oval, uses impasto, unframed, mixed media.
According to Sibley • Appreciating aesthetic qualities (of art, natural world, etc.) requires taste (i.e. an ability to notice or discern)
Perception • graceful because of that particular curve • But disanalogy with colour perception – we defend aesthetic judgements by talking! • Talking sometimes gets others to see the aesthetic qualities
This Week • Artists Intentions…their relevance to interpreting works of art…
The Intentional Fallacy • Wimsatt and Beardsley • Supposed Romantic fallacy of focusing on author psychology • The poem belongs to the public… • Appeal to intentions either misleading or redundant… • (cf Stanley Cavell - boxer)
Scrutiny vs Retrieval • Polar opposites • = Wimsatt vs Wollheim • Nehamas on the postulated author is somewhere in between
Nehamas – Postulated Author • Critical of Radical Pluralism of Deconstructionists (e.g. Derrida) • Deconstructionists say we make our own meaning of ‘orphaned’ texts – nothing to discover…
Nehamas • Just because many readings possible, doesn’t mean they all have the same status • N advocates critical monism • Ideal interpretation (which would answer all questions about that text)
Postulated Author • Distinct from historical author • Author postulated as historically plausible hypothesis about creator…what the author could have meant • In understanding a text understand an action…