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I am very excited to announce that the Realizing Resonance topic for December is Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. What is art? Can it be anything at all, or is there a limit to what should be considered art? Some people might define art as expression, but should all forms of expression be considered art? Is there a difference between good art and bad art? If there is a difference, how should we make judgments about it? What makes something beautiful? When you look out at a beautiful sunset on the water, is the beauty in the sunset itself, is beauty the experience of the sunset within you, or is beauty a combination of these, or something different altogether? These are the kinds of questions that come up in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art.
Rather than try and tackle these deep philosophical questions on all my own, I am going to ask some of my artist friends what they think. I will be profiling and interviewing some artists about their philosophies on creating works of art for a few upcoming articles, along with some displays of their own imaginative creations. Aesthetic judgments are often thought to be merely matters of taste, and this could lead one to think that art appreciation is hopelessly subjective. However, we often distinguish between good art and bad art, so on some level we recognize that aesthetic value can be judged by a critical eye, lending at least some objectivity to the measurement of artistic worth. We consider artistic people to be talented or gifted, and this supports the notion that artistic skill can be objectively discussed, but the openness to debate remains on how to judge aesthetic accomplishments. The line in the sand between the objective and subjective experiences of aesthetic enjoyment is blurry. I hope my artist friends will be able to provide some gems of insight that will illuminate these aesthetic aspects of human existence.
With these conundrums about art and aesthetics mixing around in my mind’s palette my Resolution to Read for December is…
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: An Introduction
by
Robert Stecker
In Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art Robert Stecker makes a philosophical distinction between aesthetics and art, attempting to unravel these disciplines, which are intertwined by terms, history, and once popular theories on the held art to be objects of aesthetics. In the realm of aesthetics the author explores the visual appreciation of natural environments, and addresses questions about whether aesthetic value is fundamentally based in personal experience or the properties of objects. Stecker’s book distinguishes issues in the philosophy of art from aesthetics, because a works of art is not necessarily aesthetic, and aesthetic value is also found in objects that are not works of art. Central approaches to the conceptualization of art are investigated, focusing on essentialism and contextualism, the former being theories of art that define it by its essential unchanging attributes, and the latter including theories of art that base its interpretation within the historical context of the artists’ lifetimes. I am excited to read this book, as I am relatively underserved in this rich philosophical topic.
Happy Readings!
Jared Roy Endicott
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