Aesthetics
Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that studies beauty, taste, and related phenomena. In a broad sense, it includes the philosophy of art, which examines the nature of art, artistic creativity, the meanings of artworks, and audience appreciation.
Aesthetic properties are features that influence the appeal of objects. They include aesthetic values, which express positive or negative qualities, like the contrast between beauty and ugliness. Philosophers debate whether aesthetic properties have objective existence or depend on the subjective experiences of observers. According to a common view, aesthetic experiences are associated with disinterested pleasure detached from practical concerns. Taste is a subjective sensitivity to aesthetic qualities, and differences in taste can lead to disagreements about aesthetic judgments.
Artworks are artifacts or performances typically created by humans, encompassing diverse forms such as painting, music, dance, architecture, and literature. Some definitions focus on their intrinsic aesthetic qualities; others understand art as a socially constructed category. Art interpretation and criticism seek to identify the meanings of artworks. Discussions focus on elements such as what an artwork represents, which emotions it expresses, and what the author's underlying intent was.
Many fields investigate aesthetic phenomena, examining their roles in ethics, religion, and everyday life, as well as the psychological processes involved in aesthetic experiences. Comparative aesthetics analyzes the similarities and differences between traditions such as Western, Indian, Chinese, Islamic, and African aesthetics. Aesthetic thought has its roots in antiquity but only emerged as a distinct field of inquiry in the 18th century when philosophers systematically engaged with the subject.
Definition
Aesthetics, sometimes spelled esthetics, is the systematic study of beauty, art, and taste. As a branch of philosophy, it examines which types of aesthetic phenomena there are, how people experience them, and how objects evoke them. This field also investigates the nature of aesthetic judgments, the meaning of artworks, and the problem of art criticism. Key questions in aesthetics include "What is art?", "Can aesthetic judgments be objective?", and "How is aesthetic value related to other values?". One characterization distinguishes between three main approaches to aesthetics: the study of aesthetic concepts and judgments, the study of aesthetic experiences and other mental responses, and the study of the nature and features of aesthetic objects. In a slightly different sense, the term aesthetics can also refer to particular theories of beauty or to beautiful appearances.Aesthetics is closely related to the philosophy of art, and the two terms are often used interchangeably since both involve the philosophical study of aesthetic phenomena. One difference is that the philosophy of art focuses on art, whereas the scope of aesthetics also includes other domains, such as beauty in nature and everyday life. Accordingly, one outlook argues that the philosophy of art is a subfield of aesthetics. The precise relation between the two fields is disputed, and another characterization holds that the philosophy of art is the broader discipline. This view asserts that aesthetics mainly addresses aesthetic properties, while the philosophy of art also investigates non-aesthetic features of artworks, belonging to fields such as metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and ethics.
Even though the philosophical study of aesthetic problems originated in antiquity, it was not until the 18th century that aesthetics emerged as a distinct branch of philosophy when philosophers engaged in systematic inquiry into its principles. The Latin term aesthetica was coined by the philosopher Alexander Baumgarten in 1735, initially defined as the study of sensibility or sensations of beautiful objects. The term comes from the ancient Greek words, meaning, aisthesthai, meaning, and, meaning. The earliest known use in the English language happened in a translation by W. Hooper in the 1770s.
Basic concepts
Philosophers rely on several basic concepts in their inquiry. They examine aesthetic objects and the properties or features responsible for their appeal, such as beauty. Researchers study the experience and pleasure these objects evoke, the judgments about them, and taste as an underlying sensitivity. However, this field comes with theoretical difficulties caused by disagreements about the definitions of and relations between these concepts. Similarly, the exact boundaries of the domain of aesthetics as a whole are disputedit is controversial whether there is a group of essential features shared by all aesthetic phenomena or whether they are more loosely related through family resemblances.Aesthetic properties and objects
Aesthetic properties are features of an object that shape its appeal or factors that influence aesthetic evaluations. For instance, when an art critic describes an artwork as great, vivid, or amusing, they express aesthetic properties of this artwork. Some aesthetic properties focus on aesthetic value in general, like beautiful and ugly; others center on more specific forms of value, such as graceful and elegant. Aesthetic properties can also refer to perceptual qualities of objects like balanced and vivid, to representational aspects like realistic and distorted, or to emotional responses such as joyful and angry.The precise distinction between aesthetic and non-aesthetic properties is disputed. According to one proposal, aesthetic properties require a specific aesthetic sensitivity in addition to the sensory perception of non-aesthetic properties, going beyond simple colors, shapes, and sounds. Aesthetic properties are associated with evaluations, but not all are intrinsically good or bad. For example, being a realistic representation may be aesthetically good in some artistic contexts and bad in others.
File:Aesthetic concepts.svg|thumb|alt=Diagram of a person looking at a flower with the labels "aesthetic experience", "aesthetic attitude", and "aesthetic object"|Diagram of the relation between aesthetic concepts. Philosophers debate whether aesthetic objects are material or intentional objects.
The school of realism argues that aesthetic properties are objective, mind-independent features of reality. A related proposal asserts that they are emergent properties dependent on non-aesthetic properties. According to this view, the beauty of a painting may emerge from the right combination of colors and shapes. A different position holds that aesthetic properties are response-dependent, for example, that features of objects only qualify as aesthetic properties if they evoke aesthetic experiences in observers. The terms "aesthetic property" and "aesthetic quality" are often used interchangeably. Some philosophers distinguish the two, associating aesthetic properties with objective features and aesthetic qualities with subjective experiences and emotional responses.
An aesthetic object is an object with aesthetic properties. One interpretation suggests that aesthetic objects are material entities that evoke aesthetic experiences. According to this view, if a person admires an oil painting, then the physical canvas and paint make up the aesthetic object. Another interpretation, associated with the school of phenomenology, argues that aesthetic objects are not material but intentional objects. Intentional objects are part of the content of experiences, and their existence depends on the perceiver. An intentional object may accurately reflect a material object, as in the case of veridical perceptions, but can also fail to do so, which happens during perceptual illusions. The phenomenological perspective focuses on the intentional object given in experience rather than the material object considered independently of the perceiver.
Aesthetic values and beauty
Aesthetic values are a special type of aesthetic property. They express the sensory appeal of an object as a qualitative measure of its aesthetic merit, encompassing both positive and negative evaluations. Aesthetic values contrast with values in other domains, such as moral, epistemic, religious, and economic values.The aesthetic value of beauty is often singled out as a central topic of aesthetics. It is a key aspect of human experience, influencing both personal decisions and cultural developments. Often-cited examples of beautiful objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans, and artworks. As a positive value, beauty contrasts with ugliness as its negative counterpart. Beauty is typically understood as a quality of objects that involves balance or harmony and evokes admiration or pleasure when perceived, but its precise definition is debated. Some theories understand beauty as an objective feature of external objects. Others emphasize its subjective nature, linking it to personal experience and perception. They argue that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" rather than in the perceived object. Another central debate concerns the features that all beautiful objects have in common. The so-called classical conception of beauty is rooted in classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. Focusing on objective features, it asserts that beauty is a harmonious arrangement of parts into a coherent whole. Aesthetic hedonism, by contrast, is a subjective theory holding that a thing is beautiful if it acts as a source of aesthetic pleasure. Other conceptions define beautiful objects in terms of intrinsic value, the manifestation of ideal forms, or as what evokes love and passion.
In pre-modern philosophy, beauty was often treated as the only aesthetic value. This outlook holds that beauty encompasses all that is aesthetically commendable and serves as a unifying concept of the whole domain of aesthetics. As discussions of aesthetic phenomena expanded, other aesthetic values were proposed. For example, the sublime is another value of things that inspire feelings of awe and fear. Further suggested values include charm, elegance, harmony, and grace.