AES

AESTHETICS
THE
TICS CALMA, IVAN DWIGHT A.
GALIBUT, LYZA ANGELIQUE
PASCUA, JOHN HAROLD M.
SEVILLA, JOHN MIKKO T.
 Aesthetics
is a branch of philosophy that deals with the
nature of art, beauty and taste, with the creation
or appreciation of beauty:
Aesthetics
The word derives from the Greek "AISTHETIKOS",
meaning "of sense perception".

It has also been defined as "critical reflection on art,

culture and nature".

Along with Ethics, aesthetics is part of axiology (the

study of values and value judgments).
 Aesthestic
Appreciation
is the admiration of beauty,
such as valuing the fine arts of
music, literature, dance, and
visual art.
 Aesthetic Enjoyment

-pleasure you get from sensory

experience or emotion
Aesthestician
a person who is knowledgeable about
the nature and appreciation of
beauty, especially in art
 Aestheticians ask
questions like
"What is a work of art?"
"What makes a work of art successful?“
"Why do we find certain things beautiful?“
"How can things of very different categories be
considered equally beautiful?“
"Is there a connection between art and morality?“
"Can art be a vehicle of truth?"
"Are aesthetic judgments objective statements or purely
subjective expressions of personal attitudes?“
"Can aesthetic judgments be improved or trained?"
 An object of aesthetic
appreciation is defined
as something that
prompts valueable
aesthetic emotions in us
Human Made
● Artificially created
● Made by humans
Natural Beauty
Mobile
●
web
Naturally occuring
● Can be found in Nature
Aesthetic Universals
Expertise or Virtuosity (technical artistic skills are cultivated,
recognized and admired)
Non-Utilitarian Pleasure (people enjoy art for art's sake, and
don't demand practical value of it)
Style (artistic objects and performances satisfy rules of
composition that place them in recognizable styles)
Criticism (people make a point of judging, appreciating and
interpreting works of art)
Imitation (with a few important exceptions (e.g. music, abstract
painting), works of art simulate experiences of the world)
Special Focus (art is set aside from ordinary life and made a
dramatic focus of experience)
Imagination (artists and their audiences entertain hypothetical
worlds in the theatre of the imagination)
history
 History

Ancient Greek

01 03 05

02 04
Ancient Greece
Philosophers initially felt that
aesthetically appealling object were
beautiful in and on itself

Plato felt that beautiful objects

incorporated proportion, harmony
and unity among their parts

Aristotle found that the universal

elements of beauty were order,
symmetry and definiteness.
 Ancient Greece
philosophers initially felt that aesthetically appealing
objects were beautiful in and of themselves
 History

Ancient Greek

01 03 05

02 04
Islam and Indian
 According to Islam, human works of
Ancient Islam and India art are inherently flawed compared
to the work of Allah, and to attempt
to depict in a realistic form any
animal or person is insolence to
Allah. This has had the effect of
narrowing the field of Muslim artistic
possibility to such forms as mosaics,
calligraphy, architecture and
geometric and floral patterns.

Indian art evolved with an emphasis

on inducing special spiritual or
philosophical states in the audience,
or with representing them
symbolically.
 History

Ancient Greek Chinese

01 03 05

02 04
Islam and Indian
 As long ago as the 5th
Century B.C., Chinese
Ancient China philosophers were already
arguing about aesthetics.
Confucius (551 - 479 B.C.)
emphasized the role of the
arts and humanities
(especially music and poetry)
in broadening human nature.
His near contemporary Mozi
(470 - 391 B.C.), however,
argued that music and fine
arts were classist and
wasteful, benefiting the rich
but not the common people.
 History

Ancient Greek Chinese

01 03 05

02 04
Islam and Indian Renaissance
Renaissance Western Medieval art (at least
until the revival of classical ideals
during the Renaissance) was
highly religious in focus, and was
typically funded by the Church,
powerful ecclesiastical
individuals, or wealthy secular
patrons. A religiously uplifting
message was considered more
important than figurative accuracy
or inspired composition. The skills
of the artisan were considered
gifts from God for the sole
purpose of disclosing God to
mankind.
 History

Ancient Greek Chinese Modern

01 03 05

02 04
Islam and Indian Renaissance
 With the shift in Western philosophy from the
late 17th Century onwards, German and British
thinkers in particular emphasized beauty as the key
component of art and of the aesthetic experience, and
saw art as necessarily aiming at beauty. For Friedrich
Schiller (1759 - 1805), aesthetic appreciation of beauty
is the most perfect reconciliation of the sensual and
rational parts of human nature.

Hegel held that art is the first stage in which the

absolute spirit is immediately manifest to sense-
perception, and is thus an objective rather than a
subjective revelation of beauty. For Schopenhauer,
aesthetic contemplation of beauty is the most free that
the pure intellect can be from the dictates of will.
 British Intuitionists like the 3rd Earl of
Shaftesbury (1671 - 1713) claimed that
beauty is just the sensory equivalent of moral
goodness. More analytic theorists like Lord
Kames (1696 - 1782), William Hogarth
(1697 - 1764) and Edmund Burke hoped to
reduce beauty to some list of attributes,
while others like James Mill (1773 - 1836)
and Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903) strove to
link beauty to some scientific theory of
psychology or biology.
What is
Art?
 - Plato -
Art is dangerous

believes that art plays to our

emotions rather reason
 Tripartite Soul
rational part of the soul should
always be in charge
 What is Art? An
Interview with Socrates
- brief bios of Plato (the author) and Socrates (the
main character)

- the dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon

begins: there is one idea of a bed, the one a
carpenter makes

- the artist painting the bed only makes an

"imitation" of it

- art is merely an imitation of an illusion, so there's

no truth in it
R.G. Collinwood
21st Century Philosopher

art is frequently use as an escape

of life, sort of amusement and
distraction
Amusement Art
helps audience escape from
reality, diving into a no-mistake
fictional world after a stressful day
 Mobile
Magic Art
web
stuff that helps
audience learn how to
interact with this world
better
Aristotle
our bodies need to experience a full
range of emotions in order to stay
balance – catharsis

Katharsis - purification through pity and fear

 Art is imitation, and that’s all
right, even good
Imitation is natural to humans from childhood

Imitation is how children learn, and we all learn from

imitations

Paradox of fiction
Tragedy can be a form of education that provides
moral insight and fosters emotional growth

Tragedy is the imitation (mimesis) of certain kinds of

people and actions
Good tragedies must have certain sorts of people
and plots. (Good people experience a reversal of
fortune due to some failing or hamartia.)
Kendall Walton
Contemporary American Philosopher

were moved by things that aren’t real

because the emotional response
aren’t real either - quasi-emotions
Noel Carroll
we can have real emotional responses
to fictional characters and emotions
Where does
art object
begins?
What makes an Art?
Does the value of art
come from what’s put
into the art object, by the
person who created it?
Or does its value
depends on what
experience that it
triggers in the audience?
Leo Tolstoy
Russian Novelist

An artwork begins by the expression of

the ineffable emotion of who
created it
An artist creates a way of communicating
feelings to other people – oftentimes,
feelings that can’t be expressed in mere
words

Some thinkers argue that the intention of

artist is really important – that artist must
want to evoke some valueable emotion
in the audience, for their work to be
considered art
An art make come in accident ruling out the
natural beauty said by preceding
statements

Some argue that what makes something art

is the aesthetic emotion that brings out in
the audience

Rather than the point of view of the creation

the key moment is when the audience
encounter and affected by the artwork
Ludwig Wittgenstein
concept of art defies explanation and
you’ll know it when you see it

the same artwork may evoke different

meaning
Arthur Danto
21st Century Aesthetician

Value Theory
All just a matter of taste
 Unlike ethics, where many people think
there are absolute right and wrong answers
– like, killing is wrong and helping is good-
Many people simply think that beauty is in
the eye of the beholder

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

David Hume
18th Century Philosopher

when we think about art, we should

take care not to confuse the
question, “do I like it?” with the
question, “is it good?”
 As long as you're
being honest, you
can’t be wrong about
whether or not you
like something.
Because that’s totally
subjective.
 Thanks!
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