scholarly journals A Husserlian Approach to Aesthetic Experience: Existential Disinterest and Axiological Interest

Phainomenon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-133
Author(s):  
Claudio Rozzoni
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
The Third ◽  
Aesthetic Attitude ◽  
Aesthetic Consideration ◽  
Existential Concerns

Abstract As early as 1905, Husserl made clear that, when it comes to aesthetic consideration, our “interest” is not directed toward the existence of the object as such, but rather toward the object’s way of appearance. Husserl’s famous letter to Hofmannsthal (1907) goes as far as to suggest that any existential concerns are potentially even a menace to the purity of aesthetic experience. This position clearly echoes Kant’s account of aesthetic judgment presented in the third Critique, notably as regards the notion of disinterestedness. However, this is not tantamount to claiming that aesthetic attitude implies the suspension of all interest: this paper aims to show that it would be more appropriate to discuss it in terms of a change of interest: from an existential interest to an axiological one.

Questions about Aesthetic Experience

Projections ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-75
Author(s):  
Paisley Livingston
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Third Culture ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
The Third

These brief comments raise some questions about Murray Smith’s remarks, in his new volume Film, Art, and the Third Culture: A Naturalized Aesthetics of Film, on the nature of aesthetic experience. My questions concern how we might best draw a viable distinction between aesthetic and non-aesthetic experiences and focus in particular on possible links between self-awareness and aesthetic experiences. In sum, I agree with Smith in holding that we should not give up on the notion of aesthetic experience, even though aestheticians continue to disagree regarding even the most basic questions pertaining to its nature.

Hearing the Contradictions: Aesthetic Experience, Music and Digitization

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-302
Author(s):  
Nancy Weiss Hanrahan
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Primary Object ◽  
The World ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
The Aesthetic

If, as Susan Buck-Morss (2003) suggests, aesthetic experience is an occasion for “making critical judgments about not only cultural forms but social forms of our being-in-the-world,” or if it is linked, in David Hesmondhalgh’s (2013) account, to the possibilities of collective flourishing, potential changes in the nature of that experience merit critical attention. This article reflects on the ways in which these social or ethical dimensions of the aesthetic experience of music are affected by digitization. It moves from a discussion of aesthetic experience as a form of encounter that refers to a common world, to consideration of recent work in music sociology that engages themes that emerge from that discussion: aesthetic judgment, and the question of difference and commonality. With illustrations from focus group interviews, I suggest that the quantization associated with digital environments is altering the cultural form of aesthetic judgment, just as personalization is changing the meaning of “difference” in this context. The essay is intended as a disclosive critique that takes as its primary object not the world observable through thick description or hermeneutic interpretation of actual cultural practice, but a world evoked through critical reflection on its actual and potential constellations of meaning.

The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics

2009 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Third ◽  
Extensive Survey ◽  
General Overview ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Application ◽  
Music Film

The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics looks at a fascinating theme in philosophy and the arts. Leading figures in the field contribute forty-eight articles which detail the theory, application, history, and future of philosophy and all branches of the arts. The first article of the book gives a general overview of the field of philosophical aesthetics in two parts: the first is a quick sketch of the lay of the land, and the second an account of five central problems over the past fifty years. The second article gives an extensive survey of recent work in the history of modern aesthetics, or aesthetic thought from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. There are three main parts to the book. The first part comprises sections dealing with problems in aesthetics, such as expression, fiction or aesthetic experience, considered apart from any particular artform. The second part contains articles on problems in aesthetics as they arise in connection with particular artforms, such as music, film, or dance. The third part addresses relations between aesthetics and other fields of enquiry, and explores viewpoints or concerns complimentary to those prominent in mainstream analytical aesthetics.

scholarly journals Theory of Mind, Aesthetic Judgment and Child Development Issues: A Narrative Review / Théorie de l’esprit, jugement esthétique et enjeux du développement de l’enfant : un compte rendu narratif

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-53
Author(s):  
Pedro Mendonça ◽  
Alain Savoie ◽  
Anne-Marie Émond
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Developmental Model ◽  
Art Appreciation ◽  
Compte Rendu ◽  
Développement De L’Enfant ◽  
Theorie De L'esprit

Abstract: The Theory of Mind (ToM) is an empathy related concept that refers to the ability of attributing mental states to oneself and to others. ToM is present throughout the process of aesthetic judgment and essential for an aesthetic experience to happen. We present a narrative overview of four influential studies that propose a developmental model of aesthetic judgment in children and we discuss their inherent relationship with ToM. We argue that ToM permeates the four suggested models, although not expressly mentioned in them, and conclude that ToM cannot be separated from the aesthetic experience in the context of child development.Keywords: Art Appreciation; Aesthetic Experience; Aesthetic Judgment; Child Development; Empathy; Imagination; Shared meaning; Theory of Mind (ToM). Résumé : La théorie de l’esprit désigne un concept lié à l’empathie, qui relève de la capacité d’attribuer des états mentaux, à soi-même et à autrui. La théorie de l’esprit est inhérente au processus de jugement esthétique et indispensable au vécu de l’expérience esthétique. Nous proposons ici un compte rendu narratif de quatre études déterminantes qui introduisent un modèle développemental du jugement esthétique chez l’enfant et analysons sa relation étroite avec la théorie de l’esprit. Nous affirmons que la théorie de l’esprit imprègne les quatre modèles suggérés, bien qu’elle n’y soit pas exprimée directement, et qu’elle ne peut donc être dissociée de l’expérience esthétique au niveau du développement de l’enfant.Mots-clés : connaissance des arts ; expérience esthétique ; jugement esthétique ; développement de l’enfant ; empathie ; imagination ; sens commun ; théorie de l’esprit.

scholarly journals NOTAS SOBRE FIGURAS DA MEDIAÇÃO NA TERCEIRA CRÍTICA DE KANT

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
António MARQUES
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Present Text

The present text aims to identify in Kant’s third Critique some main figures of mediation between morals and aesthetics. In the kantian system, not only nature and reason are separated by an unbridgeable gap, but also morals and aesthetics are different domains of the rationality, which are grounded on different principles. Nevertheless the third Critique explores the possibility of some mediation figures, that can overcome the mentioned gap. This is the task of the reflexive aesthetic judgment and its systematic work. In this process of the aesthetic judgment, the figures of a universal agreement among subjectivities and the moral value of the aesthetic symbol, seem to acquire a central systematic role.

Nature, aesthetic appreciation of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Western World ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Ideal Object ◽  
The Third ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Aesthetic

In the Western world, aesthetic appreciation of nature and its philosophical investigation came to fruition in the eighteenth century. During that time, aestheticians made nature the ideal object of aesthetic experience and analysed that experience in terms of disinterestedness, thereby laying the groundwork for understanding the appreciation of nature in terms of the sublime and the picturesque. This philosophical tradition reached its zenith with Kant, while popular aesthetic appreciation of nature continued primarily in terms of the picturesque. In the late twentieth century, renewed interest in the aesthetics of nature has produced various positions designed to avoid assimilating appreciation of nature with traditional models for aesthetic appreciation of art. Three are especially noteworthy. The first holds that the appreciation of nature is not in fact aesthetic; the second rejects the traditional analysis of aesthetic experience as disinterested, arguing instead that the aesthetic appreciation of nature involves engagement with nature; the third attempts to maintain the traditional analysis, while distinguishing aesthetic appreciation of nature by dependence on scientific knowledge. These positions have a number of ramifications. In freeing aesthetic appreciation of nature from artistic models, they pave the way for a general environmental aesthetics comparable to other areas of philosophy, such as environmental ethics. Moreover, the significance given to scientific knowledge in the third position both explains the aesthetic appreciation associated with environmentalism and provides aesthetic appreciation of nature with a degree of objectivity that may make aesthetic considerations more effectual in environmental assessment.

Dance, Expertise, and Sensorimotor Aesthetics

2021 ◽  
pp. 199-202
Author(s):  
Beatriz Calvo-Merino
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Sensorimotor Processing ◽  
Dance Movements ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Motor Representations ◽  
Performing Artist

The article reviewed in this chapter discusses how questions initially originated in cognitive neuroscience can be answered with collaborations with nonscientific disciplines, such as performing arts. The author describes the first study that showed dancer’s brain activity when observing dance movements. By investigating how the expert brain works, they demonstrated the important role of sensorimotor processing for movement perception, emotion perception, and aesthetic judgment. This work opened a channel of communication between neuroscientists and performing artists, enabling conversations that have generated novel questions of interest to both disciplines. The chapter discusses three fundamental insights: the importance of prior experience for perception, the importance of motor representations for perception, and the existence of a system for embodied aesthetics. Finally, the author provides some consideration on neuroscientists’ capacity to dissect the aesthetic experience and how this knowledge can be absorbed by the performing artist during the artistic and choreographic process.

Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature and the Global Environmental Crisis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jukka Mikkonen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Nature Appreciation ◽  
The Aesthetic

Global climate change has been characterised as the crisis of reason (Val Plumwood), imagination (Amitav Ghosh) and language (Elizabeth Rush), to mention some. The ‘everything change’, as Margaret Atwood calls it, arguably also impacts on how we aesthetically perceive, interpret and appreciate nature. This article looks at philosophical theories of nature appreciation against global environmental change. The article examines how human-induced global climate change affects the ‘scientific’ approaches to nature appreciation which base aesthetic judgment on scientific knowledge and the competing ‘non-scientific’ approaches which emphasise the role of emotions, imagination and stories in the aesthetic understanding of environment. The author claims that both approaches are threatened by global climate change and cannot continue as usual. In particular, he explores aesthetic imagination in contemporary times when our visions about environment are thoroughly coloured by worry and uncertainty and there seems to be little room for awe and wonder, which have traditionally characterised the aesthetic experience of nature. Finally, he proposes that art could stimulate environmental imagining in this age of uncertainty.

scholarly journals The Effect of Simple Melodic Lines on Aesthetic Experience: Brain Response to Structural Manipulations

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Ferri ◽  
Cristina Meini ◽  
Giorgio Guiot ◽  
Daniela Tagliafico ◽  
Gabriella Gilli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Musical Knowledge ◽  
Meaning Attribution ◽  
Judgment Data

This fMRI study investigates the effect of melody on aesthetic experience in listeners naïve to formal musical knowledge. Using simple melodic lines, whose syntactic structure was manipulated, we created systematic acoustic dissonance. Two stimulus categories were created: canonical (syntactically “correct,” in the Western culture) and modified (made of an altered version of the canonical melodies). The stimuli were presented under two tasks: listening and aesthetic judgment. Data were analyzed as a function of stimulus structure (canonical and modified) and stimulus aesthetics, as appraised by each participant during scanning. The critical contrast modified versus canonical stimuli produced enhanced activation of deep temporal regions, including the parahippocampus, suggesting that melody manipulation induced feelings of unpleasantness in the listeners. This was supported by our behavioral data indicating decreased aesthetic preference for the modified melodies. Medial temporal activation could also have been evoked by stimulus structural novelty determining increased memory load for the modified stimuli. The analysis of melodies judged as beautiful revealed that aesthetic judgment of simple melodies relied on a fine-structural analysis of the stimuli subserved by a left frontal activation and, possibly, on meaning attribution at the charge of right superior temporal sulcus for increasingly pleasurable stimuli.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document