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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

aesthetics: a note « Previous | |Next »
October 8, 2010

A note aesthetics at Design Observer that gives an excerpt from Which "Aesthetics" Do You Mean?: Ten Definitions by Leonard Koren. Koren says that a search through my favorite dictionaries indicated that aesthetics means a philosophical discipline, concerned mainly with art and beauty This wasn’t the useful, “natural” meaning I had hoped to find, but curious, I waded into the literature to get a better idea of what philosophical aesthetics is all about. He comments:

After perusing the classical Greeks, Kant and his contemporaries and finally the arguments of modern-day thinkers, I concluded that academic aesthetics [in the meaning of “a branch of Western philosophy concerned primarily with the nature of art and related phenomena; the philosophy of art”] has little relevance for the artists and designers drawn to my books. Nevertheless, a passage from a volume by the philosopher–art critic Arthur Danto echoed in my brain: “…without theories of art, black paint is just black paint and nothing more.” Danto pithily noted an obvious reality: in practice many artists do use the equivalent of aesthetic [philosophy of art] theories and arguments to establish, justify, and bolster the meaning of their artwork. Indeed, how and what artists say — or don’t say — about their work is often an integral part of the art-making process itself.

Koren adds that he was no longer enamored of academic philosophical aesthetics; its focus and preoccupations now seemed too narrow. He desired to construct a more comprehensive vision of aesthetics [appearance, style, taste, philosophy of art, artistic, beauty, cognitive mode, a language] which would more accurately reflect our visceral/cerebral engagements with the world.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 10:12 AM |