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Aesthetics
49 flashcards
Formalism is a theory that focuses on the form and aesthetic qualities of art as the source of its value, rather than its content or emotions expressed.
Arthur Danto's theory argues that works become art when they are presented with a theoretical understanding of what art is, as embodied in institutions.
Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.
The main areas are the metaphysics of beauty, the epistemology of aesthetic experience and judgment, and the value of art and creativity.
The metaphysics of beauty examines the nature and definition of beauty, whether beauty is objective or subjective, and the relationship between beauty and other properties like truth and goodness.
The epistemology of aesthetic experience deals with how we perceive, experience, and form judgments about beauty, art, and artistic expressions.
Theories like formalism, expressionism, and instrumentalism debate whether the value of art lies in its form and aesthetic qualities, its expression of emotions, or its pragmatic functions.
Ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle argued about whether art should imitate ideal forms of beauty or nature, and the moral value of art as imitation.
The sublime refers to things that are vast, awe-inspiring, and transcend ordinary experience, provoking a profound emotional response.
According to Kant, beauty is associated with pleasure and charm, while the sublime provokes a feeling of being overwhelmed by power, vastness, and obscurity.
The philosophy of art criticism examines how critics evaluate, interpret, and make judgments about art based on theories of aesthetic value.
For pragmatist John Dewey, aesthetic experience is the result of the interaction between an individual and their environment, unified through perceptions of form.
Hume argued that standards of aesthetic taste and judgment are based on the joint verdict of true critics endowed with natural sensibility cultivated through practice.
The expression theory holds that art expresses the thoughts and feelings of an artist, serving to communicate personal emotions and perspectives.
The institutional theory defines art as those objects recognized by institutions and social practices in the art world as candidates for appreciation.
The paradox of tragedy questions why audiences derive pleasure and appreciation from artworks depicting painful, unsettling or tragic events.
Resemblance theories hold that artistic representation succeeds when artworks accurately resemble or depict the objects, scenes or subjects they intend to portray.
High art refers to works judged to have superior aesthetic value, sophistication and cultural significance, while low art caters to popular tastes and mainstream audiences.
For Kant, aesthetic judgments are subjective yet universal, meaning they are based on sentiment but also demand universal agreement from others.
Wollheim's theory proposes that we experience pictures by simultaneously seeing the marked surface and seeing the represented scene depicted within it.
Ethical criticism judges artworks based on moral criteria such as their ethical values, influence on society, or moral truth or reprehensibility.
Feminist aesthetics examines how gender influences aesthetic norms, evaluations of art, and the under-representation of women artists in institutions.
Aesthetic emotions are the feelings and sentiments we experience when appreciating beauty, art and nature, such as awe, rapture, or being moved.
George Dickie argues that a work of art is an artifact created to be presented to an artworld public, where artworld institutions validate its status as a candidate for appreciation.
Critics argue the fine art tradition promotes Western, elite tastes, while devaluing art from non-Western traditions, craft arts, folk arts and mass popular arts.
Environmental aesthetics applies theories about art and beauty to the appreciation and design of natural and built environments like landscapes and cities.
Some philosophers like Wittgenstein and Murdoch have proposed that aesthetic judgment and appreciation is linked to virtue, ethical understanding and moral vision.
The paradox questions how and why we have real emotional responses to purely fictional characters and events that we know are not real.
Theories propose that aesthetic value derives from qualities like beauty, emotional expressiveness, formal properties, cultural significance, or cognitive value.
Collingwood defines art as the expression of emotion through the imaginative creation of artifacts intended to induce similar emotional experiences in audiences.
Gaut's cluster theory proposes that artworks are defined by having most of a cluster of criteria including representational properties, formal complexity, and capacity to provoke certain responses.
Disinterested attention refers to contemplating an object with no concern for possession or utility, appreciating its aesthetic qualities without desire or personal interest.
Beardsley defined an artwork as something produced with the intention of giving it the capacity to satisfy the aesthetic interest - an interest in forms and qualities capable of affording satisfaction.
The problem asks how artworks can be reliably identified and evaluated if there is no firm criterion or set of necessary and sufficient conditions for defining art.
Cognitivist theories propose that appreciation of art is linked to acquiring knowledge, with artworks capable of conveying insights, interpretations and understanding.
Some key properties examined are beauty, sublimity, gracefulness, elegance, daintiness, delicacy, harmony, unity, simplicity and other qualities related to artistic value.
Danto argues that artworks acquire their status by being created to be viewed as candidates for appreciation by participants in the artworld system of institutions.
The paradox questions whether strong emotional responses can truly constitute aesthetic appreciation and support aesthetic judgments about an artwork.
Hume argued that while judgments of taste vary among individuals, through criticism one can strive to attain truer and more consistent judgments approaching objectivity.
Aesthetic objectivists argue beauty is mind-independent and intrinsic, while subjectivists view beauty as construction of individual minds or cultural norms.
Stolnitz defines the aesthetic attitude as distanced, disinterested contemplation and attention given to the phenomenal properties of an artwork.
Psychical distance refers to maintaining a degree of emotional detachment from an artwork to fully appreciate its aesthetic qualities without being overwhelmed.
Plato argued that art merely imitates sensible particulars, which are themselves imitations of transcendent forms or ideals, so art is at third remove from true reality.
Goodman's theory proposes that artworks represent by exemplifying and referring through a symbolic system of representation established within an artworld.
Heidegger views great artworks as capable of revealing deeper truths about reality and the nature of human existence that are typically obscured.
Examples include Japanese concepts like wabi-sabi embracing impermanence and Zen philosophy's emphasis on enlightenment through contemplation of art.
Tolstoy argued that the purpose of art is to communicate feelings and experiences, serving as a means of union among humans for moral education and brotherhood.
For Danto, the artworld refers to the overarching context of theories and institutions that enables objects to be presented and viewed as artworks.
These include anti-art movements rejecting conventions, concepts like the abject questioning beauty, and expanding aesthetics beyond art to everyday experiences.