Ethics and Aesthetics–Philosophical Perspectives

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S51-S51
Author(s):  
M. Poltrum
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Dionysius The Areopagite ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Aesthetic Attitude ◽  
European Intellectual History ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Actual Stimulus ◽  
Aesthetic Values

European intellectual history teaches us that beauty is not just an adornment to life but is also a major source of strength for our life. Moreover, the positive aesthetic experience also has healing power. That beauty is a highly effective antidote to life's suffering, i.e. acts as an anti-depressant, has been documented in the tradition of philosophical aesthetics from Plato to Bloch. Beauty reveals truth and goodness (Plato), it shows the harmonious order and the glory of things (Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite), it is one of the transcendental names of God (Thomas of Aquinas), in beauty the world appears in its perfection (Baumgarten), beauty is the daughter of freedom (Schiller), it offers a temporary escape from the suffering of existence (Schopenhauer), aesthetic values are the only values that withstand nihilism and the meaninglessness of existence and are thus the actual stimulus of life (Nietzsche), the beautiful is the sensual appearance of the idea (Hegel), beauty is an anti-depressant and Weckamin of being, it tears people out of their forgetfulness of Being (Heidegger), there is a close relationship between the shining forth of the Beautiful and the evidentness of the Understandable (Gadamer), in an artwork and through the aesthetic attitude the Other, foreign, the non-identical that is mangled and mutilated in the administered world is preserved and saved (Adorno). Many more positive affirmative descriptions from the tradition of philosophical aesthetics demonstrate that beauty and the aesthetic have a therapeutic dimension.Disclosure of interestThe author declares that he has no competing interest.

Social Aesthetics and Mental Health–Theory and Practice

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S51-S51
Author(s):  
M. Musalek
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Aesthetics ◽  
European Intellectual History ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
The Individual

The Hows of dealing with life and with our fellow human beings is the main focus of scientific endeavor of social aesthetics as a multidisciplinary research domain. This knowledge about the Hows of our social coexistence in general and in preventative and curative medicine in particular provides the indispensable social aesthetics foundation for therapeutic interventions in which the individual once more becomes the measure of all things and activities. European intellectual history teaches us that beauty is not just an adornment to life but is also a major source of strength for our life. Moreover, the positive aesthetic experience also has healing power. Social aesthetics that wishes also to be understood as the science of beauty in interpersonal relationships provides us with knowledge that in medical-therapeutic practice becomes a key pillar of human-centred approaches to prevention and treatment.Disclosure of interestThe author declares that he has no competing interest.

scholarly journals Rise of the aesthetic experience and the crisis of the aesthetic values

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-37
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Cuckovic
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Artificial Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mass Reproduction ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Concept Of Beauty ◽  
Aesthetic Values ◽  
Different Sources

The possibility of aesthetic experience is in recent years more common than ever, because of the different contents that are being more and more invested with the aesthetic properties. They originate from the very different sources, first of all, from the artistic production and the mass reproduction of the artifacts, then, from the whole human artificial environment, where the mass media play an prominent role, but from the social rituals and ceremonies and from the individually chosen ?lifestyles? as well. Although the notion of the ?aesthetic experience? overpowered the traditionally dominant concept of ?beauty? in the modern aeshtetics, the nature of its value still initiates the debates, because the experiences are more numerous than their holders. The excellence of art has been merged in the banality of everyday life, which obtained an attractive appearance, but not the beauty of spirit, lovable surface, but not the true depth. As a strategy of turning the unaesthetic to aesthetic, aestheticization would be more promising if it would not be reduced to the mere anaesthetic technique of beautification, but if it would be the trigger for the legitimation of pervasive interference of all of the domains of rationality, which are still seen irreconcilable and, therefore, as usurpative.

Visual Rhythm in Krishna Prakash Shah's Abstract Paintings

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
Yam Prasad Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Visual Rhythm ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The One ◽  
Aesthetic Values

Krishna Prakash Shah's abstract paintings present visual rhythm in the canvas that provides a sensation of music, melody and motion. Lines, colors and shapes are running and flowing in a spontaneous manner as fluid without any obstacle on their way. Due to harmony and cohesion among colors and shapes, the visual compositions create a friendly atmosphere and comfort to our eyes. The artworks have such a power that invites the viewers to enter the canvas and explore the unknown world, having an adventurous imaginary journey. The viewers become the characters who travel back and forth along with the swinging shapes and lines. Due to the aesthetic experience of visual rhythm, the viewers become the one with the viewed artwork. The distance between the subject and the object is lost since the viewers assimilate with the artwork. The dynamic lines, colors and shapes are flowing spontaneously. This motion and flow suggest the visual melody and music. The scope of the study includes Krishna Shah's abstract paintings which have been explored from the perspective of visual rhythm and music as a tool for interpreting artworks. The study is qualitative since the artworks have the possibility of multiple interpretations. This paper, thus, attempts to trace the visual rhythm in his abstract compositions and their aesthetic values.

Idleness and Freedom in Michel de Montaigne’s “Essays”

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-202
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
Spiritual Quest ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Sextus Empiricus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Relationship

The article advances a hypothesis about the composition of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays. Specialists in the intellectual history of the Renaissance have long considered the relationship among Montaigne’s thematically heterogeneous thoughts, which unfold unpredictably and often seen to contradict each other. The waywardness of those reflections over the years was a way for Montaigne to construct a self-portrait. Spontaneity of thought is the essence of the person depicted and an experimental literary technique that was unprecedented in its time and has still not been surpassed. Montaigne often writes about freedom of reflection and regards it as an extremely important topic. There have been many attempts to interpret the haphazardness of the Essays as the guiding principle in their composition. According to one such interpretation, the spontaneous digressions and readiness to take up very different philosophical notions is a form of of varietas and distinguo, which Montaigne understood in the context of Renaissance philosophy. Another interpretation argues that the Essays employ the rhetorical techniques of Renaissance legal commentary. A third opinion regards the Essays as an example of sprezzatura, a calculated negligence that calls attention to the aesthetic character of Montaigne’s writing. The author of the article argues for a different interpretation that is based on the concept of idleness to which Montaigne assigned great significance. He had a keen appreciation of the role of otium in the culture of ancient Rome and regarded leisure as an inner spiritual quest for self-knowledge. According to Montaigne, idleness permits self-directedness, and it is an ideal form in which to practice the freedom of thought that brings about consistency in writing, living and reality, in all of which Montaigne finds one general property - complete inconstancy. Socratic self-knowledge, a skepticism derived from Pyrrho of Elis and Sextus Empiricus, and a rejection of the conventions of traditional rhetoric that was similar to Seneca’s critique of it were all brought to bear on the concept of idleness and made Montaigne’s intellectual and literary experimentation in the Essays possible.

Schopenhauer and the Paradox of the Sublime

2020 ◽  
pp. 237-255
Author(s):  
Bart Vandenabeele
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Aesthetic Object ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
The World ◽  
The Aesthetic

Schopenhauer explores the paradoxical nature of the aesthetic experience of the sublime in a richer way than his predecessors did by rightfully emphasizing the prominent role of the aesthetic object and the ultimately affirmative character of the pleasurable experience it offers. Unlike Kant, Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the sublime does not appeal to the superiority of human reason over nature but affirms the ultimately “superhuman” unity of the world, of which the human being is merely a puny fragment. The author focuses on Schopenhauer’s treatment of the experience of the sublime in nature and argues that Schopenhauer makes two distinct attempts to resolve the paradox of the sublime and that Schopenhauer’s second attempt, which has been neglected in the literature, establishes the sublime as a viable aesthetic concept with profound significance.

Exploring Tourist Behavior in a Reused Heritage Site

2021 ◽  
pp. 109634802110200
Author(s):  
Yi-Ju Lee ◽  
I-Ying Tsai ◽  
Te-Yi Chang
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Intention ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Tourist Behavior ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Modeling Analysis ◽  
Heritage Buildings ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Relationship

This study investigated the relationship among tourists’ perceived sustainability, aesthetic experience, and behavioral intention toward reused heritage buildings by employing stimulus–organism–response theory. There were 354 valid questionnaires collected from the Sputnik Lab in Tainan, Taiwan. A positive correlation was found between tourists’ perception of sustainability and aesthetic experience. When tourists perceived higher aesthetic experience, they also had stronger behavioral intention. Structural equation modeling analysis verified that the aesthetic experience of tourists had mediating effects between perceived sustainability and behavioral intention in the reused heritage space. The reuse of space should be attached significantly to the aesthetic display of space and service so as to promote such scenic spots and increase tourists’ intention to revisit through word of mouth.

The Role of Understanding on Architectural Beauty: Evidence From the Impact of Semantic Description on the Aesthetic Evaluation of Architecture

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110021
Author(s):  
Sizhe Liu ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Xianyou He ◽  
Xiaoxiang Tang ◽  
Shuxian Lai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Supplementary Information ◽  
Aesthetic Evaluation ◽  
Abstract Description ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Appearance Design ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Impact

There is evidence that greater aesthetic experience can be linked to artworks when their corresponding meanings can be successfully inferred and understood. Modern cultural-expo architecture can be considered a form of artistic creation and design, and the corresponding design philosophy may be derived from representational objects or abstract social meanings. The present study investigates whether cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design is perceived as more beautiful and how architectural photographs and different types of descriptions of architectural appearance designs interact and produce higher aesthetic evaluations. The results showed an obvious aesthetic preference for cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design (Experiment 1). Moreover, we found that the aesthetic rating score of architectural photographs accompanied by an abstract description was significantly higher than that of those accompanied by a representational description only under the difficult-to-understand design condition (Experiment 2). The results indicated that people preferred cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design due to a greater understanding of the design, providing further evidence that abstract descriptions can provide supplementary information and explanation to enhance the sense of beauty of abstract cultural-expo architecture.

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