L'expérience de l'art et le sensible

B/ L'expérience de l'art, le partage du sensible

• Charles Batteux (1713-1780): Argued that taste is the judge of all fine arts, and that reason forms its rules based on taste. Rules are seen as consequences of imitation. Emphasized the importance of "je-ne-sais-quoi," a subjective feeling/sense not easily defined. This feeling is known only through its effects.
• Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714-1762): Proposed a distinction between "Noeata" (facts of intellect) and "Aistheta" (facts of sensibility). Sensible knowledge is a form of "confused knowledge," less precise than rational knowledge, but equally valid. Sensibility is seen as a parallel way of knowing alongside reason, providing a different kind of clarity (confusing) compared to precise rational clarity. Confusion is important-it is a way of knowing
• Clarté vs Obscurité: Baumgarten distinguished between distinct/intellectual clarity and confused/sensible clarity, opposing it to the obscurity of knowledge void. Confused clarity is a source of knowledge, notably in the arts.

Implications

• Truth and Beauty: Located in the mind, not the object itself. Perception is subjective and limited. Apparent truth is the highest we can reach.
• Consequences: Re-evaluating the importance of the sensible sphere, subjective nature of perception. Truth is considered as resemblance – appearance.

1/ Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804): Critique of the faculty of judging (1790)

• Faculty of Judgment: The ability to judge something as beautiful or ugly.
• Three relations to pleasure:
  • Agreeable: Subjective, individual satisfaction; not reflective.
  • Good: Approvable based on a concept.
  • Beautiful: Free and disinterested pleasure-linked to a concept.
• Fine Art: Viewed as a means of knowledge, not just sensory pleasure; a way to have knowledge. Pleasure has to be the purpose.
• Agreeable vs. Fine Art: Agreeable art aims to satisfy our senses without deeper reflection. Fine art involves a broader process related to understanding and/or contemplation of the object..
• Differences between “agreeable” and “beautiful”: Beautiful satisfaction does not depend on personal interests, but the good has a concept related to it.

Subjectivity vs Universality

• Aesthetic judgment: Subjective in its origin but claims universal validity. The sentiment is accessible to all; the claim to shared "feeling/sensibility" is central .
• Paradox: Judgment can be both subjective and universally valid.

2/ John Dewey, Art as Experience

• Pragmatism: Focuses on the practical and experience-based aspects of art.
• Art as Experience: Stresses the importance of the interaction between art and the individual experience.
• Experience as a process: Art is a process not a fixed thing.
• Essential aspects of experience: It is a process; it flows from the beginning to the end; it is a unity. It has a distinctive character within itself; it is not just a sequence in which things occur.

Return to Kant

• Political Hypothesis: All people have a common understanding of aesthetics. This involves the idea that the aesthetic experience is something everyone shares.

• Bourdieu - Social/Cultural Capital: Cultural capital is acquired through social interactions and education, and it influences our understanding and preferences.

• Philosophical Questions: Why do some people have more "taste" than others? How does culture shape our aesthetic judgments?