Questions tagged [aesthetics]
Aesthetics is the study of the beautiful. It is one of the classical sub-disciplines of philosophy.
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Philosophers who view Aesthetics as an application of other fields of Philosophy?
I'm not looking to have a debate on stackexchange about wether aesthetics is a branch in itself.
However, I am looking for sources, or just recommendations of writers of aesthetics, who view ...
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What does this quote mean about Plato's Cave?
Simon Blackburn is describing the Poetic Interpretation of ascending from Plato's Cave:
Part of the charm of Plato is the sense of being in a world in which these fractures did not exist. Ours may ...
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Why does Schopenhauer think aesthetic experience is the suspension of pain and desire?
In an discussion about Schopenhauer , the French philosophy teacher Christophe Salaün says:
"L'expérience esthétique est la suspension momentanée de la douleur, du désir. En supprimant provisoirement ...
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How is Adorno suggesting we respond to culture?
The way in which a girl accepts and keeps the obligatory date, the
inflection on the telephone or in the most intimate situation, the
choice of words in con versation, and the whole inner life as
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"Proper" and "improper" functions of objects in art
Background
I am trying to describe the use of an object in a non-traditional way, and am trying to use philosophical language to talk about this. Specifically, I am describing sculptural art that ...
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Can one author be proved to be better than another?
Can we objectively say that one author is better than another? For example, could we say William Shakespeare is objectively a better author than E.L. James? If it is possible, how would we decide? ...
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Difference between zeug and art(works) for Heidegger
Why is Heidegger making a difference between 'zeug' (instruments) and a work of art?
The reason that I do not understand this difference is that in my experience every object has the power to show ...
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Why did not former epochs distinguish between 'art' and 'craft'?
Source: p. 18 Middle, Beauty: A Very Short Introduction (2011) by Roger Scruton.
That said, we should recognize that the distinction between
aesthetic and utilitarian interests is no more clear ...
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What gives rise to the preponderance of 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's? [closed]
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two unintelligent Danish nobles who were ultimately fooled by the protagonist and executed by the English king. Their attire, role, and tone ...
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Is this quote from Aristotle's Poetics?
Stackexchange,
I remember reading someone quoting Aristotle's Poetics in saying 'Poetry (i.e. epic and drama) is what must be true, while history is what might have been true.'
I don't have ...
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How does feng shui and aestethics work together?
According to Wikipedia
Feng Shui is a is a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment. It is closely linked to Daoism... [and] is one of the Five Arts of ...
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Classical philosophical texts on aesthetics [closed]
What are the best (according to most philosophers) classical philosophical texts on aesthetics?
I have found several ones on the Internet, but I don't know which one to start with first.
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What are some arguments for the golden ratio making things more aesthetically pleasing?
What are some (not necessarily good) arguments that painters, architects, designers, musicians, etc. basing their work on the golden ratio φ makes their work more aesthetically pleasing?
I think these ...
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Do supporters of "machine creativity" necessarily support "natural creativity"?
Recently, someone asked Can computers be programmed to be creative? on Philosophy SE. The answers seem to be divided into two competing theories:
If creativity is defined by the ability to create an ...
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How are these statements of truth and beauty related?
In Latin there's a phrase In vino veritas, which translated to "in wine, truth"
There is also a saying that truth is beauty and beauty is truth.
There's also real world observation that the more a ...
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What is the role of the art curator?
I keep seeing people talking about the increased importance of curation in art today.
What is going on here, has any philosopher discussed this trend or possible problems linked to curation of art? ...
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What does poetry enact according to Heidegger?
The following idea is cited approving in a book I just read
Derrida, Heidegger, Blanchot, by Timothy Clark
But on an earlier page the same author says
In what way can a poem be "nothing but its own ...
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What is the ontological status of a story plot?
A stage play, a movie, and a comic book can all have the same plot. And this despite being very different mediums physically, and even if they are set in completely different fictional universes.
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According to Adorno, does the "truth content" of art refer?
Adorno and the Political, By Espen Hammer
In this negation, by truth content, is it a form of referentiality?
Which may be to ask whether truth content is linguistic, in this action of negation.
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Do questions come before or after art activity?
Do questions generate art activity or only follow art activity?
Most art is a form of assertion not of questioning. In thqt wiew, art is not an
answer to a question, but a statement of experience. ...
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What sort of creativity do Nietzsche's higher men have?
The canonical example of a higher man is Goethe.
How would his art have been better if he had appeared after
Nietzsche?
I assume it would entail something dionysian, perhaps a means of ...
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Can world without earth begin an artwork's strife?
In art there is:
an “essential strife” between two interconnected dimensions of
intelligibility (revealing and concealing) which Heidegger calls
“world” and “earth” in his most famous work on ...
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Good Introductions to Kants Critique of Judgment
Can somebody recommend any? I have come across Wicks & Hughes so far, but I am finding it very difficult. I am also finding it incredibly difficult reading through the Critique itself. Any advice ...
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Can photography or film have its own new type of aura?
Can photography or film, according to Benjamin, have its own new type of aura, a uniqueness which allows for reproduction?
This author, Silliman, suggests they cannot, because photography as art is ...
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a relationship with the other
Bourriaud somewhere says:
“artistic practice is always a relationship with the other, at the
same time as it represents a relationship with the world”.
Does he by "with the other" mean "with ...
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Is self-expression not unique to creatives?
Often it's thought that "self-expression" is only possible in creative work and e.g. for this reason the pol. ideology communism as well as Maslow's hierarchy of needs thinks of the creative pursuits ...
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Does Art require an Audience?
Nietzsche consistently throughout his writings argues for a monological conception of art--art that does not seek "witnesses" or an audience. Not only did the episode with Wagner force Nietzsche to ...
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Is it possible to use Wittgenstein's family resemblance approach to universals to separate high art from commercial art?
In a previous post, I asked whether it is possible to objectively compare the quality and validity of different pieces and forms of art. In the responses I got the overall response is that there is no ...
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What is the enigma of art?
I've always been fascinated by the following constellated section of Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, probably because phenomenology is intuitively easier to get to grips with than a drawn out critical ...
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Which contemporary philosophers explicitly engage with Nietzsche's statement that "God is dead"?
Which contemporary theorists, especially of art or poetry, explicitly and deliberately engage with Nietzsche's statement that "God is dead"?
Obviously Nietzsche has had a huge influence on post / ...
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Why, according to Adorno, were Schoenberg's innovations progressive?
I think that Zuidervaart, in his book Adorno's aesthetic theory, says that Adorno makes two claims for artworks:
They develop the productive forces of the artform
The artist has a cognition of the ...
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How might aesthetics be radically Other?
I've read a handful of book by or about Levinas, but some time ago and without notes. IIRC his central ethical theme is that other people are not an aspect of the self, that our obligation to them ...
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Is it ever possible to objectively state that a piece of music or film, or a genre, is better, or more artistically valid than another?
I first found Adorno and Horkheimer's critique of pop culture in the Culture Industry very compelling. Their idea that pop culture was factory produced and induced mindless consumerism as opposed to ...
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Are there objective criteria for aesthetic judgment?
Are there objective criteria for judging whether or not artworks are good art? Should we at times appeal to moral values in assessing the quality of artwork? What major approaches are there for the ...
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Does doing comparative philosophy presuposse adopting cultural-relativism?
Assuming that there are several distinct philosophical traditions - say - Western, Chinese and Indian and that philosophers can actually compare the manner certain philosophical problems were handled ...
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Defining Kant's idea of the sublime and applying it to a painting?
How would one go about applying Kant's idea of the dynamical sublime to a painting as to Kant the Dynamical sublime is:
The dynamically sublime is similar. In this case, a “‘might' or power is ...
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What is an "aesthetic experience"?
So, we're doing a project in philosophy class, discussing what exactly an "aesthetic experience" is. I understand, that it is a very personal definition that everybody has, but I'm sure there are some ...
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Philosophy of Humor
I was reading Andre Breton's "Anthology of Black Humor" and I found in one of the introductory notes a report addressing the theme of humor by Hegel. I think it is related to the treatment of comedy ...
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aesthetic meaning ‘I breathe in’ and ‘I gasp’ [closed]
How can "aesthetic" meaning "I breathe in" and "I gasp" have any relation to what the writer has explained below?
Context:
Indeed, the solving of a perceptual conundrum brings its own reward, and we ...
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Philosophy and the arts in the romantic era
Has the relation between philosophy and the arts (especially poetry) changed at all since the romantic era?
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"To experience person to person – artist to viewer – a shared sensation"
What does the second half of this paragraph mean?
In viewing art, we recognise that we are not alone, confined by our mental and physical boundaries. We merge into a collective consciousness. Of ...
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Why did Adorno hate the movies?
Adorno stated:
Every visit to the cinema, despite the utmost watchfulness, leaves me
dumber and worse than before.
Minima Moralia 5
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Nietzsche's perspective in Philosophy of Art
What is the meaning of the pair Apollonian and Dionysian in Nietzsche's philosophy of art? In which work does Nietzsche expand his view?
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What is the difference between an opinion and a philosophical opinion? [closed]
What is the difference between an opinion and a philosophical position? If there is more than one philosophical position that is not obliterated easily by sniff sniff logic, how can that be the case? ...
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Does all art have a sentiment?
It occurred to me that when e.g. reading poetry, I attach a lot of significance to a kind of sentiment. It seems independent of how genteel the work is.
I am interested in finding a way of thinking ...
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Are aesthetic judgments rational?
I was reading this article: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aesthetic-judgment/#1.4
I was thinking that aesthetic judgments are responses that derive from our emotions. So they can be considered ...
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For Kant, how is pleasure in beauty disinterested?
Kant states that pleasure in beauty is not based on desire and does not produce any. But don't we usually have a desire to have things that are beautiful in our lives? Such as "this car is beautiful! ...
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How to know if one has aesthetic observation "artist-eye"? [closed]
If I am going to start learning design, I am going to ask this question first - "What is design?" But the search for the answer leads directly into philosophical statements and arguments. I am lost ...
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How can one measure the quality of art?
In art (music, painting, etc.), is it meaningful to say that this piece is better than this one? I can understand somebody saying "I have more feelings, I'm more touched when I listen to this song ...
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Which scholars argue that for art to be art, it must be for art's sake?
I understand this is partially supported by Nietzsche, but do others agree or adamantly disagree with this position? If so who?
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