PHIL 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Subjectivism, Square Enix Europe
21 May 2018
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CHAPTER 7 - BEAUTY
Ethics = the study of right and wrong
Aesthetics = the study of beauty
Aesthetics = the study of feeling, the judgements and the views involved in the
appreciation and experience of the esthetic categories
What is art? Can art be defined?
4 Characteristics
1. Representation - Art depicts or imitates objects in the world, the artist does not aim
to make an exact copy of the object, rather the artist creates their own
representation
2. Expression - Art is a way of communicating the artist’s feelings and prompting
others to experience those feelings
3. Form - The structure or organization of its parts, and such qualities as the unity
or harmony of the whole, the content is inessential what’s important is the
structure, formalism goes hand in hand with abstract movement in art
4. It can not be characterized - there is no good reason to lump art into categories
Aesthetic Value?
1. From it’s function - art gains value from being able to inspire, exalt, serve a moral
purpose, convey truths or values and effect change
2. Intrinsic Characteristics - Unity, Coherence, Intensity, Radiance, Complexity
Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?- subjective vs objectivism
Subjectivism - beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the effectiveness of a piece depends
on its audience, beauty exists in the mind that contemplates it
Kant, The Critique Judgment (1790)
• When something is beautiful we make a disinterested judgment
• A genuine judgement of taste is independent of human desires
Freud
• The pleasure given beauty derives from sexual pleasure
• The love of beauty seems a perfect example of an impulse inhibited in its aim
Problems with Subjectivism
1. Imagine a world with beautiful things but no humans or conscious beings, does it
then remain beautiful?
-An object cannot be beautiful if it can give pleasure to nobody
1. There is virtually no disagreement about the beauty of some works of art.
-Subjectivism cannot explain this unanimity
1. Are things beautiful because they give delight or give delight because they are
beautiful?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Ethics = the study of right and wrong. Aesthetics = the study of feeling, the judgements and the views involved in the appreciation and experience of the esthetic categories. Aesthetic value: from it"s function - art gains value from being able to inspire, exalt, serve a moral purpose, convey truths or values and effect change, intrinsic characteristics - unity, coherence, intensity, radiance, complexity. Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?- subjective vs objectivism. Subjectivism - beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the effectiveness of a piece depends on its audience, beauty exists in the mind that contemplates it. Kant, the critique judgment (1790: when something is beautiful we make a disinterested judgment, a genuine judgement of taste is independent of human desires. Freud: the pleasure given beauty derives from sexual pleasure, the love of beauty seems a perfect example of an impulse inhibited in its aim.
