Philosophy and Esthetics

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Philosophy and Esthetics

• Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?
• Does art reflect the values of the artist?
• Can a life be a work of art?

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Esthetics Defined
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The Esthetic Experience

• Descriptive
• What is it?
• Pragmatic
• Is it useful?
• Emotive
• Do I like it?

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The Object of Esthetic Experience

• Can anything be within the esthetic domain?
• Is there a line between fine and useful art?
• Are there levels of art?
• Are natural phenomena within the domain of art?

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The Esthetic Continuum
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Esthetic Objects Eternal Forms

• Plato the Form of the Good defines all
  appearances of the good in our experience.

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Suchness

• All things as they are are subject to esthetic
  experience.

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Unified Experience

• John Dewey the daily interaction between the
  live creature and ethereal things.
• Objects that take on meaning in our actual
  experience possess the esthetic dimension.

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Feeling (Expressionism)

• Benedetto Croce art is the expression of the
  artists emotion.
• Art reflects the intuitive state of mind of the
  creator.
• It is the spontaneous overflow of powerful
  feelings.
• Art is symbolic of our feelings.
• Music is feeling, not sound. (Stevens)
• Beauty is objectified pleasure. (Santayana)

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Existential Possiblities

• The art object is pure possibility.
• Art is a presentation (not representation).
• Art is real, not an image of the real.

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Three Controversial Issues

• Subjectivism vs. Objectivism
• Are esthetic judgments subjective, objective, or
  a combination of the two?
• Art and Knowledge
• What is the relation between art and
  epistemology?
• Art and Morality
• Should art serve a moral/ethical end?

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Subjectivism

• Art objects possess no esthetic qualitiesart is
  in the eye of the beholder.
• Cultural values determine esthetic experience.
• Historical conditions, and therefore esthetic
  judgments are always in flux.

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Objectivism

• Absolutists The harmony of imagination and
  universal judgment prove that the esthetic realm
  is external to us.
• Pragmatists The fact that art objects produce
  esthetic responses proves that they themselves
  have esthetic quality.
• Rationalists Good art pleases everyone, which
  proves its objective truth.

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Art and Knowledge

• Can art teach me something of value?
• My intuitive experience with art teaches me
  without need of reason

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Art and Morality

• Should art serve a social purpose?
• Should art be a morality-producing enterprise?
• Should art be subject to censorship?

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