1. Aesthetics

2. Journal
What is art? Take a look at the images projected on the screen. Which images fit into your definition of art? Which do not? Explain your responses.

3. Aesthetics Defined
The branch of philosophy concerned with beauty, especially as it appears in works of art, and with the judgments we make about the artistic value of such works.

4. Journal 1: What is art? Image 1
Take a look at the images that follow. Which images fit into your definition of art? Which do not? Explain.
Image 1

5. Image 2

6. Image 3

7. Image 4

8. Journal 2: Art as Reality
In what sense should art be an imitation of reality?
MIMETIC vs ANTI MIMETIC

9. Works Cited
Da Vinci, Leonardo. Mona Lisa. c. 1503–19. Oil on Populus. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Duchamp, Marcel. Fountain Sculpture. SFMOMA. Monet, Claude. Bridge of Pond of Water Lilies Oil on Canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

10. Beauty and Truth
Plato’s Form of Beauty – manifested in all beautiful things
Beauty is the truth of beautiful things
Transcendent Form of Beauty makes all things beautiful
Therefore, beauty is objective.
Beauty = Truth; Truth = Beauty
The Form of Beauty is pure beauty and is the beauty behind all beautiful things. Since Beauty is a Transcendent Form it is, therefore, objective. As a result, the contemplation of beauty leads one closer to Truth according to Plato. (next slide)

11. Learning from Beauty?
Recognize the single science of beauty everywhere
Achieve “boundless love of wisdom”
Appreciate and contemplate all beauty
Appreciate the beauty of the sciences
Appreciate the beauty of institutions and laws over individual beauty
Because for Plato the ultimate aim of contemplating art to bring one closer to the truth, he objected to art that did not attempt to depict the ultimate reality of the forms that can only be viewed through wisdom and virtuous contemplation. Therefore, he was a proponent of censorship of art that did not help people to be responsible citizens or cultivate virtue
Appreciate the beauty of the mind over the outward form
Appreciate beauty in all forms
Appreciate beauty of one form

12. Truth Beauty
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1486). Tempera on canvas. Uffizi, Florence
Limousin, Leonard. Crucifixion. (c1505-c1577) Enamel. Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
Michelangelo. Pieta. ( ). Marble. St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
However, sometimes what makes art beautiful is the way in which they do not imitate reality, that it is artifice. The smoothness and purity of the marble in the Pieta, the mythological scene in The Birth of Venus, and medieval crucifixion scenes like that shown above present us with ideals, not reality. These images are not concerned with accurate representation (mimesis) but rather with expression, the truth of an emotion, the truth of faith and virtue.

13. Aristotle
Emphasized form – What formal elements define successful works of art?
Focused on tragedy – “an imitation of an action that is complete in itself […] that which has a beginning, middle, and end”
Valued catharsis – the release of emotions that occurs when we empathize with a character of tragedy and, by extension, diminish the power of the released emotions over us. (Contrast with Plato)
Believed, like Plato, that beauty was objective
Just as Aristotle objected to Plato’s two world theory of Forms, he rejects Plato’s theory of beauty as a transcendent form. Aristotle instead focused on how art worked on a structural, formal, level. He analyzed the form of works of art, what structural elements led to successful piece of art. For example, Aristotle says that tragedy should be … (read quote). As we learned about at the beginning of the semester, Aristotle (unlike Plato) valued tragedy because of catharsis. Ultimately, Aristotle believed like Plato

14. Subjectivity of Art David Hume
appreciating art is wholly subjective – dependent upon the individual’s judgment of value
Judging a work of art a “good” or “great”, however, requires consensus from those most experienced with art and aesthetics

15. Objectivity of Art Kant
a priori knowledge about beauty – inherent structures exist in the mind that allow people to appreciate beauty.
Intellectual – not emotional – response to art leads to appreciation
One must be objective (“disinterested”) in order to appreciate art; subjective emotional responses are in their very nature not aesthetic responses.
Sharing a beautiful experience is essential to art.
This objective ability to contemplate and appreciate art is part of what makes us human, according to Kant. It is also part of what we are pre-equipped with as designed by God.

16. Emotions, Ethics, and Art
Confucius
Music appreciation leads to virtue (compare to Plato and Pythagorus)
Harmony in music mirrors harmony in life.
Sappho – “what is beautiful is good and what is good will soon also be beautiful”
Music, visual arts, and dance are found almost universally across cultures

17. Emotions, Ethics, and Art (cont.)
Friedrich Schiller
art is inspiration for become good citizens (Plato again?)
Beauty symbolizes morality
Unites the individual with the rest of the world
Arthur Schopenhauer
Perception of art must be “disinterested” (Kant)
Art offers an escape from the unsatisfying world and from our irrational desires
Art allows us to get “outside ourselves”, frees us from our own desires, and allows us to be more sympathetic with others.

18. Nietzsche, Ethics, and Art
Aesthetic is Ethics
Beauty should guide our actions
Distinguishes between two sources of art
Apollonian – depicts the world as orderly and harmonious; creates an ethics of rationality and clarity (Socrates)
Dionysian – depicts the vibrant frenzy of life; amoral (without ethics) but helps the individual transcend him or herself
Great art is both

19. Closing Questions
Is there a difference in quality between current popular music and so- called classical music? Is there any plausible argument that one ought to prefer to the other?
In what sense do we believe in objects of fiction? Does it make sense to say that a work of art (say a novel) in “total fiction,” that is, that nothing in it is true?
Do you believe that art and aesthetic appreciation can make one a better person? How?
Why does listening to music move us?