scholarly journals Aesthetic pleasure: cognition and emotion in the aesthetic concepts. Remarks after Sibley’s works

2014 ◽  
pp. 183-201
Author(s):  
Giulia Bonasio
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-394
Author(s):  
Emelia Quinn

When we encounter the work of Grinling Gibbons, we find ourselves in the presence of multiple non-human animals. However, it is unclear how one should address these presences. On the one hand, for ecofeminist scholars such as Josephine Donovan, the aestheticization of animal death is to be vehemently resisted and the embodied presence of animals recovered by looking beyond the surface: a mode of looking that Donovan terms ‘attentive love’. On the other hand, a re-reading of the philosophical ideas of Simone Weil, upon which Donovan premises her argument, suggests that attention to others requires a mode of radical detachment. These two positions speak in important ways to the dilemmas faced by a vegan spectator. Drawing on Jason Edwards’s previous work on ‘the vegan viewer’, this article seeks to reconcile a vegan resistance to Gibbons’s depictions of animal death, in their spontaneous falling under human dominion, with the aesthetic pleasure generated by Gibbons’s craftmanship. I therefore propose ‘vegan camp’ as a means of reconciling oneself to insufficiency and complicity in systems of violence without renouncing pleasure. Vegan camp is detailed as an aesthetics that acknowledges the violence of humanity and one’s inescapable place within it, dissolving the subjective idea of the beautiful vegan soul to pay attention to the pervasive presence of an anthropocentrism that, in the case of Gibbons, decoratively adorns the sites at which animals might be eaten, worn, or offered up for sacrifice.


Author(s):  
Barbara Gail Montero

Although great art frequently revers the body, bodily experience itself is traditionally excluded from the aesthetic realm. This tradition, however, is in tension with the experience of expert dancers who find intense aesthetic pleasure in the experience of their own bodily movements. How to resolve this tension is the goal of this chapter. More specifically, in contrast to the traditional view that denigrates the bodily even while elevating the body, I aim to make sense of dancers’ embodied aesthetic experience of their own movements, as well as observers’ embodied aesthetic experience of seeing bodies move.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 630-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Skov ◽  
Marcos Nadal

Empirical aesthetics and neuroaesthetics study two main issues: the valuation of sensory objects and art experience. These two issues are often treated as if they were intrinsically interrelated: Research on art experience focuses on how art elicits aesthetic pleasure, and research on valuation focuses on special categories of objects or emotional processes that determine the aesthetic experience. This entanglement hampers progress in empirical aesthetics and neuroaesthetics and limits their relevance to other domains of psychology and neuroscience. Substantial progress in these fields is possible only if research on aesthetics is disentangled from research on art. We define aesthetics as the study of how and why sensory stimuli acquire hedonic value. Under this definition, aesthetics becomes a fundamental topic for psychology and neuroscience because it links hedonics (the study of what hedonic valuation is in itself) and neuroeconomics (the study of how hedonic values are integrated into decision making and behavioral control). We also propose that this definition of aesthetics leads to concrete empirical questions, such as how perceptual information comes to engage value signals in the reward circuit or why different psychological and neurobiological factors elicit different appreciation events for identical sensory objects.


1998 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-122
Author(s):  
Christin Kocher-Schmid

AbstractBiodiversity is not exclusively a product of pristine natural processes but is also, to a considerable degree, caused by human activities. This is demonstrated by a detailed inspection of the use and classification of plants by the people of Nokopo village in the Finisterre Range of Papua New Guinea. Nokopo people recognise and value biodiversity on all its levels - genetic diversity, species diversity and diversity of ecosystems - and their activities enhance overall biodiversity. This can be partly explained by the usefulness biodiversity has to them, in terms of resource access and other utilitarian considerations. On the other hand, aesthetic concepts and values make a significant contribution. Both these intrinsically interwoven components - the utilitarian and the aesthetic component respectively - form the base for understanding the major role humans play in creating and maintaining biodiversity, the role of keystone species enhancing overall biodiversity in a given ecosystem.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 415-432
Author(s):  
Aboubakar Gounougo

El ritmo, en el centro del texto, es una cuestión que rara vez se aborda por su cuenta. Sin embargo, aunque carece de sentido, el papel del ritmo en la construcción del sentido en el texto es sumamente esencial. Así pues, el ritmo, aunque no tenga sentido, tiene sentido por la forma en que interviene en la secuencia de texto. A este respecto, se resuelven muchas cuestiones dentro del texto, en particular las relativas a la fijación del sentido, así como las vinculadas a la expresión de la obsesión y de la emoción. Todas estas son cuestiones que preocupan nuestra reflexión actual, a través de dos puntos esenciales a este respecto y que nos llevan, en primer lugar, a interrogarnos sobre la problemática de la construcción del equilibrio entre el contenido y la forma en las secuencias de texto; en segundo lugar, el proceso al término del cual nace la categoría emocional, condición del placer estético del texto. Rhythm, at the heart of the text, is an issue that is rarely addressed for its own sake. Yet, although it has no meaning, the role of rhythm in the construction of meaning in the text is most essential. It is thus that the rhythm, in the absence of meaning, makes sense, however, by the way it intervenes in the sequence of text. It is in this respect that a number of questions are resolved within the text, particularly those relating to the fixing of meaning, as well as those relating to the expression of obsession and emotion. These are all questions which concern our present reflection, through two essential points on this subject and which lead us, in the first place, to question the problem of the construction of the balance between the content and the form in the textual sequences; second, the process at the end of which the emotional category takes birth, condition of the aesthetic pleasure of the text. Le rythme, au cœur du texte, est un problème rarement abordé pour lui-même. Pourtant, bien qu'il n'ait aucun sens, le rôle du rythme dans la construction du sens dans le texte est le plus essentiel. C'est ainsi que le rythme, en l'absence de sens, prend tout son sens, par sa façon d'intervenir dans la séquence du texte. C'est à cet égard qu'un certain nombre de questions sont résolues dans le texte, notamment celles relatives à la fixation du sens, ainsi que celles relatives à l'expression de l'obsession et de l'émotion. Autant de questions qui concernent notre réflexion actuelle, à travers deux points essentiels sur ce sujet et qui nous conduisent, en premier lieu, à questionner le problème de la construction de l'équilibre entre le contenu et la forme dans les séquences textuelles; deuxièmement, le processus au terme duquel prend naissance la catégorie émotionnelle, condition du plaisir esthétique du texte.


Author(s):  
Anastasia Cardone

      Although Annie Dillard's masterpiece Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974) has conventionally been analyzed as a piece of Nature writing embedded in the Thoreauvian tradition, little has been said about the aesthetic concepts that underlie the text and Dillard's entire take on Nature. This research applies the concepts of Baumgarten's “science of sensible knowledge” to the narrator's perceptions in order to demonstrate that Dillard's ultimate message is the acceptance of Nature, even in its seemingly inhuman places. The study begins with the analysis of the structure of the book, which outlines two types of experience of Nature. Thevia positivais related to the aesthetic concept of beauty and to an active participation of the subject in the aesthetic experience of seeing as a verbalization, whereas the via negativais linked to the concept of the sublime and the experience of seeing as a letting go. Furthermore, the analysis employsand develops Linda Smith's valid conclusions (1991) to show how these two paths join in a third mystical and aesthetic path, the via creativa. By leaving the interpretation of natural signs open-ended, Dillard's modern vision enables the author's total acceptance of Nature's freedom, which fosters its beautiful intricacy as well as its horrible fecundity. Thus, Nature's creativity becomes the basis for an aesthetics of Nature's wholeness, which leadshuman beings to embrace the true essence of Nature, freed from anyprejudices.Resumen       A pesar de que Pilgrim at Tinker River (1974), obra maestra de Annie Dillard, ha sido analizada convencionalmente como una pieza de literatura y medio ambiente incrustada en la corriente Thoreauviana y ha sido estudiada extensivamente, poco atención se le ha prestado a los conceptos estéticos que subyacen la obra y que pueden servir para comprender mejor la opinión de Dillard sobre la naturaleza. Por lo tanto, esta investigación aplica los conceptos de “ciencia del conocimiento sensible” de Baumgarten a la percepción del narrador con el fin de demostrar que el mensaje final de Dillard es la aceptación de la naturaleza, incluso en sus lugares aparentemente inhumanos. El estudio comienza con el análisis de la estructura del libro, que describe dos tipos de experiencia de la naturaleza relacionados con caminos místicos que llevan a Dios, dentro de la teología Neoplatónica. La vía positiva está asociada al concepto estético de la belleza y a la participación activa del sujeto en la experiencia estética de ver, la cual es definida como una verbalización. Por otra parte, la vía negativa está vinculada con el concepto de lo sublime y la experiencia de ver como un dejar ir. Además, el análisis emplea y desarrolla las válidas conclusiones de Linda Smith (1991) para mostrar cómo estos dos caminos se unen en un tercer camino místico y estético, la vía creativa. Al dejar la interpretación de signos naturales abierta, la visión moderna de Dillard permite al autor la total aceptación de la libertad de la naturaleza, lo que fomenta su hermosa intrincación, así como su horrible fecundidad. Así, la creatividad de la naturaleza se convierte en la base para la estética de la naturaleza en su totalidad, lo que lleva a los seres humanos a aceptar y respetar la verdadera esencia de la naturaleza, libre de cualquier prejuicio.


Muzikologija ◽  
2007 ◽  
pp. 99-118
Author(s):  
Judit Fridjesi

This article is based on the musical material and interviews the author collected in Hungary, France, Czechoslovakia, the USA and Israel in the course of thirty years of her fieldwork among the traditional East-Ashkenazi Jews. It relates to the aesthetic concepts of the prayer chant of the Ashkenazi Jews of East Europe (?East -Ashkenazim?) as it appears to have existed before World War II, survived in the oral tradition until the 1970s and exists sporadically up to the present.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 251
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Restifo

Performance has long been recognized to be a meaningful component in the worship of the Jina. This paper will focus on a particular aspect of devotional performance and historicize the phenomenon of ritual re-enactment of the Jina’s biography, a practice that remains significant to temple worship today. This paper will argue that the performance of the enlightened soul’s biography was familiar to Jains already in the early centuries of the common era and was not confined to the five auspicious events (kalyāṇakas). In a Śvetāmabara canonical text called the Rāyapaseṇiyasutta, this re-enactment is part of a greater, highly pleasurable spectacle that evokes a variety of aesthetic emotions, including erotic emotion, in the audience of monks. Through this discussion I will question the dichotomies between aesthetic pleasure and ritual efficacy and between drama and meritorious conduct and show that aesthetic pleasure, which lies at the heart of Jina worship, defines its meritorious value in the eyes of the devotees. The more splendid and aesthetically pleasing one’s expression of devotion, the more efficacious it is believed to be. I propose that the significance of the aesthetic element in devotional performance for laypeople stems from their temporary transformation into gods and goddesses. Celestial beings, as the paradigmatic enjoyers (bhoktṛ) of sensual pleasures, spend their life-spans relishing joy and rapture. As such, the pleasurable experiences of laypeople are essential for the veracity of their ritual transformation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Biehl-Missal ◽  
Michael Saren

This article introduces the concept of the “atmosphere” from aesthetic theory to contribute to critical research on the aesthetic, embodied experience in retailing, and consumption spaces, which has received little attention in the marketing literature. The article draws on the “new aesthetics” of Gernot Böhme which is not a theory of art or the works of art but considers the full range of “aesthetic work” including marketing practices. Contributing to the art-versus-commerce debate, this framework suggests differentiating between atmospheres in the arts and in marketing, and it suggests the continued relevance of Critical Theory. The theoretical background is applied to a Starbucks coffee shop as an example for a seductive consumption atmosphere to make evident issues of aesthetic pleasure and aesthetic manipulation. The concept of the atmosphere helps to consider aesthetics as an active social power in a macromarketing context.


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