Philosophy Commons^™

The Universal Validity Of The Conceptions Of Artistic Creativity And The Perception Of Beauty In Pre-Modern China: A Comparative Examination, Junghwan Lee

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In contemporary aesthetics, artistic creativity and the perception of beauty are the key concepts in explaining aesthetic consciousness. From the birth of modern aesthetics, an underlying assumption has been that artistic creativity and the perception of beauty are each genuinely universal in human experience, which is worthy of particular attention. To examine the universal validity of Western aesthetic claims on these two distinctive subjects, this paper presents a very brief outline of pre-modern Chinese interpretations of both concepts. Specifically, in comparison to Kant’s concept of genius and aesthetic judgment, I draw two conclusions. First, although there was no concept equivalent …

The "Aesthetic Life": A Leitmotif In Modern Japanese Aesthetics, Tanehisa Otabe

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In 1901, Chogyu Takayama (1871-1902), philosopher and literary critic, published a short article entitled “On the Aesthetic Life.” Takayama’s article, regarded as a manifesto of Nietzscheism by his contemporaries, triggered a great debate among a great many literary critics, including Shoyo Tsubouchi and Ogai Mori. This paper argues that Takayama’s article constituted a framework for aesthetic thought in modern Japan and marked the Japanization of Western modern aesthetics. Takayama was not interested in the modern Western idea of autonomous art; instead, he tried to work out the aesthetic in one’s way of living. What underlies Takayama’s idea of the aesthetic …

Exploring The Inner Relationships Between Modern Chinese Aesthetics And The Confucian Mind-Soul (心性) Framework, Wei Du

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Modern Chinese aesthetics promotes the utilitarian function of the arts and artistic appreciation via aesthetic education and an arts-infused lifestyle. This utilitarian orientation has not originated from European aesthetics, but rather reflects a localized awareness of the “humanistic enhancement of citizens” through the arts, which, derived from the Confucian tradition, expands on its “mind-soul” theory. This conceptual framework finds its roots in the Song-Ming philosophy of mind and pays particular attention to the cultivation of individual morals and personal character as the essential pathway towards restoring conscience. This positioning of values and valuations, to a large extent, was the inspiration, …

Notices, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Recent Publications, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

The Art Scenes, Jozef Kovalčik, Max Ryynänen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

"The art scene in Berlin is political." "The Atlanta hip hop scene is red hot!" These are remarks we have heard lately about scenes. Scenes are a commonplace in art talk. But what are scenes, and what is their role in arts? Aestheticians, art theorists, and art historians often pay attention to different scenes. Although many classics in the field are based on comments regarding only one scene, which is, for example, the case with Arthur C. Danto's "The Artworld" (1964) and Susan Sontag's "Notes on Camp" (1964), which both focus on New York, there is still no discussion about …

Agnostic Moralism, Mark Silcox

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Many otherwise admired authors in the Western tradition (e.g. Plato, Augustine, and Tolstoy) have defended views about the radical dependence of aesthetic value upon morality that are nowadays regarded with deep skepticism. In more recent work on the connection between moral and aesthetic properties, Noël Carroll, Anne Eaton, Berys Gaut, and others have tried to defend relatively moderate varieties of moralism about art, according to which the aesthetic value of ethically significant artworks sometimes overlaps with but might also independently vary from their moral status. Here, I develop an immoderate species of moralism that treats the type of ethical knowledge …

On Canon, Craig Deksen, Darren Hudson Hick

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Canon is a concept from aesthetics that has become a regular subject of commonplace discussions. The nature of canon, especially as it is used in these commonplace discussions, has not been subject to adequate philosophical scrutiny. We attempt to remedy that by placing canon in its historical and philosophical context, exploring and rejecting several common accounts, and presenting some basics of how canon works. We reject the accounts that place control with the author or the legal property holder, which appear to be the most commonly held accounts.

Summary Of The Existential Aesthetics Of Things By Petra Baďová, Peter Žiak

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

On The Oddly Satisfying, Evan Malone

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Deconstructing Walter Benjamin, Miklos Legrady

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

The Aesthetics Of Mud And The Muddiness Of Aesthetics, Arnold Berleant

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Mud And A Metaphor, David Goldblatt

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Mud, A Comment, Mary Bittner Wise

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Thoughts On An Aesthetics Of Mud, Tom Baugh

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

On The Front: Aesthetics Vs. Popular Arts And Mass Culture - Ii, Ken-Ichi Sasaki

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The popular arts and mass culture represent our environment. The flood of their products reduces high art to minority status. This situation leads us to reconsider the privileged status of high art and the role of aesthetics as its theory, which is my main focus here. I take up three different cultural eras: early modern times, when the notions of art and aesthetics as a philosophical discipline were founded; our own day as the time of mass culture; and, lastly, the popular culture in the Edo period in Japan, the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, which reflected different choices.

In …

A Conceptual Framework For The Aesthetics Of Everyday Object Appreciation, Russell Quacchia

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay takes up the topic of the aesthetics of everyday object experience. In doing so, it strings together a series of fairly complex topics as a conceptual framework. Its focus is upon the nature of certain core features that appear to be at work in giving rise to this kind of experience. It especially considers the role of such features as the aura property of phenomenal objects and the self-activation of aesthetic-interested attention. It gives a level of explanation to the crucial topic of why we tend to ignore taking an active interest in the aesthetic dimension of everyday …

Master Narratives And The Pictorial Construction Of Otherness: Anti-Semitic Images In The Third Reich And Beyond, Michael Ranta

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Collective identities of the Self (or Ego) vs. the Other are not only conveyed in and between cultures through verbal discourse but also through pictures. Such cultural constructions are often established and consolidated by storytelling, where, briefly put, events or situations are temporally ordered. Pictures and visual artworks may be powerful narrative resources for establishing and consolidating cultural stances and framing actions. In this paper, I shall focus upon demarcation efforts of Jews as the Other from the Middle Ages onwards, in the Third Reich’s iconography, and in modern, radicalized forms of anti-Semitic picturing in Arab media. Within overarching master …

Painting, Mindfulness And Crowther's Aesthetics, Colleen Fitzpatrick

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This paper addresses the notion of painting as a mindfulness-based intervention. This premise is justified as it relates to Crowther’s phenomenological aesthetics. Crowther’s theory of painting makes use of a number of features that characterize mindfulness practice and reflect the mindful attitude. These include attention, self-consciousness, universality, otherness, empathy and temporality. Painting and mindfulness practice are seen as interventions upon experience that expand being through greater engagement. Heightened perceptual awareness and embodiment are central to this discussion as they are at the root of aesthetic experience and mindfulness practice. The development of self-consciousness is a key consideration in this context. …

Recent Publications, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Terrorist Aesthetics As Ideal Types: From Spectacle To "Vicious Lottery", Marshall Battani, Michaelyn Mankel

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay builds on Arnold Berleant’s concept of the negative sublime and his less-appreciated image of the vicious lottery to engage the ongoing discussion about the importance of aesthetic analysis for understanding terrorism. Sociological definitions of aesthetics and terrorism are presented as potential tools to aid in the analyses of terrorist aesthetics. Three aesthetic types of terrorism are developed in the tradition of Weberian sociological ideal typification. The article discusses the appropriateness and applicability of that typology for enriching our understanding of terrorism and counterterrorism.

Socio-Musical Performing Artistry, Aron Edidin

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Philosophical discussion of artistry in performance has focused on the relation of performers to musical works and to their instruments. But an important domain of musical artistry is social, relating musicians to their fellows in performing groups. This “socio-musical” artistry contributes to the artistic accomplishments of performing groups as a whole. I identify two distinct kinds of socio-musical artistry, and discuss some of the ways in which different forms of group organization articulate different possibilities for their exercise. Finally, I discuss at some length the extreme case of a performing role that is purely socio-musical, that of the orchestral conductor. …

Building A Paradise? On The Quest For The Optimal Human Habitat, Anu Besson

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Do humans have a natural habitat? If yes, is it the original habitat of early hominids or the most optimal environment for today’s humans? Are these two the same thing and, if not, what does ‘optimal habitat’ mean? I examine the concept of the optimal habitat from four viewpoints: 1) paradise; 2) urban design based on environmental psychology; 3) favorite places; and 4) environment as an invitation for action. I conclude that an optimal habitat is not a collection of more or less fixed elements but an environment that can be experienced as a beneficial feedback loop based on and …

Notices, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Aesthetic Value Of Minimalist Architecture In Gaza, Salem Al Qudwa

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This paper aims to visually study the simple objects that exist around us and the buildings people live in, in order to account for how a simple architectural language can help in the current situation in the Gaza Strip. A descriptive analytical method was adopted as the main methodological tool in order to gather information about existing minimalist objects and ordinary architecture in Gaza. Field investigations were conducted in order to photograph different areas in the Strip’s communities: Gaza city, rural-to-urban areas, and marginalized areas were compared to well-known minimalist artworks. Minimalist architecture in Gaza is not an alternative paradigm …

Sublime And Anti-Sublime: Reconsidering The Relation Of The Sublime To Technology, Konstantinos Vassiliou

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The aesthetic notion of the sublime has been traced in different fields in the growing spheres of technology, capitalism, and digitality. The variable character of the sublime is partly due to the fact that it is identified with specific objects or sources. It can emerge whenever there is an antithesis between the infinite extensions of reason and the limits of the representative faculty. Taking into account this variance, this article seeks to reexamine the relationship of the sublime to technology, especially in view of current digital capabilities. In doing so, I argue that the notion of the sublime involves its …

Performer, Persona, And The Evaluation Of Musical Performance, Theodore Gracyk

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Engaging with recent ideas about the moral evaluation of art, I argue that facts about the lifestyle, attitudes, and moral character of music performers are relevant to evaluating a musical performance. When it contributes to a better understanding of the performance, this knowledge contributes to a more accurate estimation of its aesthetic merits and flaws. I explain how my view departs from those of Berys Gaut and Jeanette Bicknell.

Art By Jerks, Bernard Wills, Jason Holt

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Is it wrong to enjoy art created by immoral people? Some people express discomfort with listening to or reading the works of artists who have been abusive to others in their personal lives. In this paper, the authors argue that, generally speaking, moral and aesthetic judgment should be kept distinct, as authors and their works formally differ. Indeed, works by morally dubious artists may well contain crucial acts of moral imagination we should not deprive ourselves of as ethical beings. Nonetheless, the authors argue there are limits to how far the ethical and aesthetic can be divorced. Art that is …

Imaginative Intersections: Engaging Aesthetic Experience At The Shofuso Japanese House, Peter L. Doebler

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay explores how the imagination creates dynamic aesthetic experiences by negotiating the intersection of opposites. The goal is to enrich our thinking about the relation of nature and art within a more comprehensive environmental aesthetics. I focus on a single example, the intersections created by the particular experience of space and time in the paintings of Hiroshi Senju, at the Shofuso Japanese House in Philadelphia. First, I provide a brief introduction to Senju and the work at Shofuso. Next, building on perspectives from within environmental aesthetics and Senju’s own writings, I sketch out a framework for thinking about the …

The Aesthetic Appreciation Of Animals In Zoological Parks, Marta Tafalla

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Can we appreciate in a serious and deep way the aesthetic qualities of wild species in exemplars held captive for exhibition in the artificial installations of a zoo? To answer this question I invoke theories concerning the aesthetic appreciation of nature propounded by Yuriko Saito and Allen Carlson. I then argue that zoos impose their story on animals, thereby preventing us from appreciating the animals on their own terms. I claim that captivity and its effects on the health, behavior, and appearance of animals make serious and deep appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of wild species impossible.