INTRODUCTION

TO
AESTHETICS
By Ellen Miller

Group 1
ARIOLA,Fathima
CALDONA,Sheena Mae
DELA TONGA, Jhon lee
ECO,Jubilyn
TABINAS, Ranie
TORRES,Ann Nathalie
 What is
AESTHETICS?

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AESTHETICS

 is the name of the philosophical study of art and

natural beauty.
 Is the new branch of philosophy that arose in the
early 18th century in England and Germany
 Is a reflection on ideas we already have about art.

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 HUMAN
ALEXANDER
BAUMGARTEN EXPERIENCE

FUNDAMENTAL WAYS

LOGICALLY AESTHETICALLY
Attributed with Attributed with
the senses of the sense of
human value and
perception of
human to arts

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The meaning of Aesthetics to Philosophy.

If the meaning of aesthetics is based to philosophy which

is often thought of as a kind of systematic reflection of our
ordinary common sense intuitions and deeply rooted
beliefs and assumptions then aesthetics is a reflection on
ideas we already have about art, artists. Therefore, we
know what aesthetics, arts, and artist.

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 MAIN POINTS OF MODERNIST AESTHETICS
1. Aesthetic experience is non-utilitarian
2. AE is detached from ordinary self-interested pursuits (is disinterested)
3. Works of art are made to be viewed aesthetically—and so just to be enjoyed
(For no other purpose)
4. Everyone can appreciate art just by adopting the aesthetic point of view
5. Artists see things in a unique way and creatively find innovative ways of
communicating that vision to us
6. Artists show us how to look at the world, how to understand ourselves, who
we are
7. Works of art express these unusual ideas of artists
8. Great works of art must be innovative and creative, expressing new ideas in
new ways
9. The history of art is the history of these great innovations by these great
artists
10. Art is not hard to understand—it just requires that we adopt the aesthetic
point of view.
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Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Earl of Shaftesbury said that

we can love things for
themselves and we can decide
what we should love and
appreciate.In this way,It is a
matter of Taste,inner sensation or
feeling.Not something can learn
from a book.

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 HISTORICAL
INTRODUCTION
TO AESTHETICS

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• He explains that it is the Form of Beauty that is
the object of love.
• According to him, beauty transcends the world
of sense experience, which means that the
experience of beauty is different from what
would be described as aesthetic experience
today. His theory dismisses sights and sounds
as illusory.
• the idea of beauty was broken up and
fragmented gradually was replaced by the PLATO
concept of aesthetic.

Beauty= "having aesthetic value"

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The THEORY OF IMITATION by Plato

The theory of Imitation has two fundamental aspects:

1. nature of imitation
2. bad effects of imitation

Platos analysis of imitation results in threefold distinction

1. Minds eye
2. Sensory objects
3. Images, pictures and poems.

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 PLOTINUS

He thought that the experience of beauty itself is

not a sensuous experience but an intellectual
one.

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St. Thomas Aquinas (354-430 AD)
Aquinas’ understanding of beauty is
not an unworldly one; he defines
beauty as that which pleases when
seen.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

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The 18th Century: Taste and the Decline of Beauty

The Critical and Important time in History of Aesthetics.

During this time the Philosophers provided the basis for
aesthetics in its modern form.

1. Vegetative Faculty – nutrition and procreation.

2. Locomotive Faculty – movement
3. Rational Faculty – mental behavior
4. Sensory Faculty – perception and imagination

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Prior to the 18th century – beauty named an objective property of
things.
In the 18th century – beauty named a subjective property of things.

Hume’s Standard of Taste – empirical investigation of certain

aspects of human nature.
Hume concludes that beauty is not the objects but is a feeling often
linked by the nature of human constitution to certain qualities in
objects. He also taught that knowledge derives from experience that
brought us uncertainty.

Kant’s philosophy of beauty and taste is based on the priori

foundations of knowledge that shows judgment of beauty are
universal and necessary.

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He also taught that all aesthetic judgment
focus on pleasure, which is a property of the
experiencing rather than of the objective
world. Kant does also think that they are
stable and universal.

“Pleasure felt with beauty is different from

pleasure coming from our sensory glands e.g:
taste” IMMANUEL KANT

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Kant's theory of beauty can be summarized in a sentence:

A judgment of beauty is a disinterested, universal, and

necessary judgment concerning the pleasure which everyone
ought to derive from the experience of form.

Disinterestedness—perceivers are indifferent to the real

existence of the object. The judgment of beauty is independent
of the interest in real existence.

Interest in the object is a secondary and different kind of

judgment

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Other strain in the history of aesthetics—the philosophy
of art

During 19th Century

• The theory that art is the expression of the emotion of the
artist came to be the dominant view.
• The doctrines of the expression theory of art has its roots
in Kant’s theory of knowledge.
• This theory tries to show that art can also do something
important for people.
• It attempts to relate art to the lives of people.
• It attempts to account for the emotional qualities of art and
the way in which art moves people.

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