Aesthetics Summary - Week 1-3 PDF

Aesthetics summary – Week 1 Should be able to: - Explain when, how and why aesthetics emerged as an independent philosophical discipline - Explain the difference between philosophy of art, art criticism and social sciences such as art history and the sociology of culture - Explain th...

Aesthetics summary – Week 1 Should be able to: - Explain when, how and why aesthetics emerged as an independent philosophical discipline - Explain the difference between philosophy of art, art criticism and social sciences such as art history and the sociology of culture - Explain the difference between aesthetics (in a broad and a narrow sense) and the philosophy of art Historical roots of aesthetics Until mid-1700s - Medieval and Renaissance authors discussed the nature of art and beauty o Philosophical theology ▪ The beautiful is the same as the good ▪ Beauty = integrity, harmony and brightness ▪ Light = god o Neo-Platonic theory - In Renaissance further development of art theory at academies - However: aesthetics isn’t seen as an independent philosophical discipline 18th century - Establishment of aesthetics as independent philosophical discipline o Autonomation (emancipation) of art (Enlightenment) ▪ Consequently: crisis of aesthetic norms What is art? ▪ Emergence of modern (natural) sciences What are the rules of art and its appreciation? - Growing out of and against Enlightenment: Romanticism and Bildung - Alexander Baumgarten (1735) o Used aesthetics for the first time as ‘science of the sense knowledge’ ▪ Derived from Greek ‘aesthesis’: sense perception o Sought to reassess the entire area of sense perception o Against traditional focus on reason in philosophy (Plato, Descartes) ▪ Against Enlightenment o Moreover, scientific approach ▪ Establish the rules of artistic and natural beauty from individual taste - Kant’s aesthetics o Differentiaties between aesthetic judgment and sense perception in general o A priori conditions presupposed by empirical and aesthetical judgments o Baumgarten’s universal objective rules of beauty are impossible What is aesthetics? - Aisthesis o Science of sense perception ▪ Until mid-1700s - Aesthetics o Systematic study of aesthetic judgment (in art and nature) ▪ Mid-1700s onwards - Philosophy of art o Critical reflection on the nature of art ▪ Late-1700s onwards What is aesthetics today? Current interests in aesthetics Most current discussions: - Art beyond the end of art o From postmodernism to post-postmodernism - Participatory turn in contemporary art o Artists as sociologist - Arts-based research o Use of tools from the arts and humanities in social sciences Art historical approach - Art history o What technical means were used to reach the effect that the work has? o To what extent did the artist deviate from the mainstream norms of the time? o How does this depiction of a war scene fit in the history of war scenes? - Philosophy o Should war scenes be portrayed? o Are we able to perceive the emotion of the artist about the war through works of art? Philosophy of art vs. sciences - Difference is determined formally, not materially o Empirical and philosophical questions can be about the same thing - Empirical-scientific judgments are always normative statements (materials used) - Philosophical questions transcend empirical observation (is objective representation possible) Philosophy of art vs. art criticism - Similarities o Both disciplines are normative by nature o Aestheticians are in the developing of their theory often determined by their own taste o Aesthetic judgments in art criticism often rely on aesthetic theory - Principal distinction o The particular (art criticism) vs. the general (aesthetics) Today New meanings - The underlying factors that contribute to aesthetic experience o Science - The systematic study of stylistic and expressive elements, such as composition and style o Criticism - The various ways that beauty can be studied, both experience and perception of beauty o More than art  Aesthetics summary – Week 2 Should be able to: - Explain what Plato meant with his concept of ‘mimesis’ and how his imitation theory relates to his ontology, epistemology and ethics - Explain the connections and differences between Plato’s and Aristotle’s understanding of art as ‘mimesis’ - Explain how the imitation theory, in the guise of Neo-Platonism, influenced artistic movements like the Renaissance and 19th century realism - Explain and reflect on the major criticisms on the imitation theory developed by Gombrich and Goodman - Apply imitation theory to concrete examples of artistic practices Plato Plato’s ontology - Distinction between the noumenal and phenomenal world o Phenomenal: the sensorily perceptible world ▪ Appearances of reality o Noumenal: the reality behind or beyond which is empirically observable ▪ True reality - Empirical reality is in constant flux - How do we know the noumenal world exists? o Logic: that one cat vs. the word ‘cat’ ▪ Universal category o Metaphysics: that one cat vs. the cat ▪ The idea or form, created by god - Distinction: knowledge (intellect, reason) vs. opinion (sensory perception) - The world of ideas is perfection, true, good, and beautiful - Our knowledge of the forms is innate, but forgotten after birth - When we learn, we re-remember Plato’s ethics - The idea of the good (‘justice’) exists and needs to be quested - Philosopher is the only one in the republic to see the idea of the good - Three classes: o Philosophers (politics) o Soldiers (security) o The people (manual labor) - Goal of the republic is to reach the optimum of ‘justice’: o Communal economy ▪ No private property/ownership o Ascetic lifestyle ▪ Self-control and moderation Plato’s aesthetics - Nature is less real than the idea o Crafts ▪ Productive arts (but still imitation) o Arts ▪ Imitative arts (copy of a copy) - Arts focuses just on appearance, no true understanding - Attractive things are misunderstood to be beautiful and thus good, or true  - Plato liked Egyptian and archaic Greek art o Geometric, focus on simple harmony and unity - Plato disliked drama and tragedy - Art should be state art o Poetry praising the republic, music for marching, etc. Aristotle Aristotle’s ontology - No distinction between noumenal and phenomenal - Empiricist: gain knowledge by sensory experience - No innate knowledge, we are born as tabula rasa - Knowledge is born out of interaction between deduction and induction Aristotle’s aesthetics - Mimesis is a fundamental human property - By imitation we learn about life and gain joy - Right amount of fear is healthy - Mimesis is representation (not imitation) - Learn to cope with difficult things in life and explore effects of behaviour Plato vs Aristotle - Relation between violence and art o Plato ▪ Art spurs violence o Aristotle ▪ Maybe even more violence without art - Aristotle has more confidence in critical capabilities of the audience From idealism to realism - Plato is influential in the world of art, through Plotinos o Art can be a direct reflection of the world of ideas/forms o Art is a reflection of ideal truth/good/beautiful in an imperfect material world - In Renaissance ideal views on beauty o Emphasis on harmony, unity, symmetry, light - Modern (philosophical) realism has two presuppositions: o The phenomenal world is the true world o Art can be an exact copy of that world, it’s even necessary Criticism Gombrich - The artists looks through a conceptual schema o Traditions, techniques, conceptions, conventions - All art is conceptual by nature o Thus not mimetic - Art history as a sequence of styles and stereotypes Goodman - Reproduction of reality isn’t based on resemblance, but is symbolic by nature - Realism is determined by the system of representation standard for a given culture of person at a given time  Aesthetics summary – Week 3 Should be able to: - Explain the central theoretical principles of art as expression as developed by Tolstoy and Croce & Collingwood - Explain the major criticisms on the Croce/Collingwood theory, as suggested by Van den Braembussche - Explain the central theoretical principles of formalism, as developed by Hanslick and Bell/Fry - Explain the major criticisms on formalism, as suggested by Van den Braembussche - Apply Expression theories and Formalism to concrete examples of artistic practices Art as the arousal of emotions (Tolstoy) - Art is purely and solely a matter of emotion (encoding of emotions) o Science = rational knowledge o Art = expresses that which escaped the form of an argument o Art moves truths from the realm of knowledge to the realm of feeling - Democratization of arts o Modern art: luxury article for the elite o Emotions in art should be simple, natural and unspoiled - Art should morally elevate people o Infect the audience with feelings of brotherly love and solidarity Objections to Tolstoy - Art isn’t solely about feeling o Underestimation of skill and intellect - Infection of the audience isn’t enough for art - Work of art is judged on moral merits - Tolstoy’s theory leads to random results Croce and Collingwood theory (CC-theory) C&C’s views on history - Croce o The historical event in its unique individuality ▪ The spiritual inside of a historical event is important for historian, not just the physical outside ▪ What were motivations and intentions of historical actors? o Presentism ▪ Historians should use their intuition to re-experience the historical events in their minds - Collingwood o Each action is the unity of an event’s outside and inside ▪ What were the original thought processes o Re-enactment ▪ Retrace the original thought process via imagination Inside-outside approach Three fundamental principles: - Art is the expression of: o Intuition (Croce) ▪ The concepts intuition and expression belong to the inside, to the mental reality of the artist ▪ intuition and expression occur simultaneously  o Imagination (Collingwood) ▪ Imagination doesn’t precede expression but they occur simultaneously - The work of art is a purely mental product o Croce ▪ The artwork shouldn’t be identified with its possible materialization It’s possible for a work of art to be externalized, but this is by no means necessary o Collingwood ▪ The original expression exists in the imagination of the artist - Reception of art is: o Re-experiencing (Croce) ▪ Reception of art amounts to reproducing the work of art in oneself Audience reproduces original expression of the artist and become artists themselves Taste (reception/reproduction) and genius (production) are the same o Re-creation (Collingwood) ▪ The distinction between artist and audience ceases to exist Audience: determining the original expression in and through the imagination A true work of art, thanks to the imagination, inspires us to express our own emotions Objections to the CC-theory - The artwork doesn’t only exist in the mind of the artist o The artist’s internal language/voice is also an embodied medium - Artworks can’t exist without a medium o The necessity of interaction with the medium - Difficult to determine the original intuition of the artist o Different interpretations are possible (encoding/decoding) Joseph Kosuth and conceptual art - Art = based on an idea, not on form or representation o Art isn’t (self-)expression (materialization of inner reality through form) but self- reflection (content is primary) o Art is conceptual, and should add to new understanding of what art essentially is o Thinking about the essence of art (developing aesthetics) = art - External manifestation is unimportant o Artist should reflect on the history of art: new possibilities - Creation of an artwork always implies a dialogue between artist and audience Formalism in music: Eduard Hanslick - Form and content are identical - Music isn’t expression o The content of music is nothing but dynamic sound patterns - Music isn’t mimesis o It doesn’t represent something specific - The language of music is autonomous o The forms are irreducible to something external - Instrumental music has the purest aesthetic Objections to Hanslick - Argument in favor of autonomy in music is unsustainable o Other genres also have their medium-specific nature - Underestimation of the symbolic nature of music - Doesn’t explain how and why music is expressive Bell and Fry on significant form - Art is not imitation o It’s not the similarity with reality that enthralls us but the unique pictorial design - Art is not self-expression o Emphasis on aesthetic ecstasy in the observer o It’s not about the expression of specific emotions by the artist, but the experience/arousal of universal emotions amongst members of the audience (significant form) o The unique, aesthetic emotion isn’t time nor place specific - Art expresses the unspeakable o The form must speak for itself o Art brings us into contact with a metaphysical or supernatural reality o Because we all can have a similar aesthetic experience, the experience of art is mystical/religious Objections to Bell/Fry - Ambiguity concerning representation and expression - Underestimation of the emotional and intellectual context (cultural capital) - Identity of form and content are untenable o Eventually art serves a purpose outside of art itself, namely, to bring audience in contact with something beyond art: the universal