Aesthetics:%20Contemporary%20Theories

1
Aesthetics Contemporary Theories
2
Week by Week

• 1) Against Definition
• 2) The Institutional Theory
• 3) Identifying Art
• 4) Aesthetic Concepts
• 5) Artists Intentions
• 6) Style and Personality

3
Last Week

• Noël Carroll on Identifying Art (reading 39)

4
Carrolls answer

• Historical narration is the primary strategy we
  use for classifying art (see p.454)

5
In Problem Situations

• E.g. Warhols Brillo Boxes
• We tell (or ask for) a story linking this to
  preceding art
• What we seek are EXPLANATIONS not DEFINITIONS

6
This Week

• Frank Sibley on Aesthetic Concepts
• (Reading 43)

7
Aesthetic Terms

• E.g. unified, balanced, integrated, lifeless,
  serene, sombre, dynamic, powerful, vivid,
  delicate, moving, trite, sentimental, tragic,
  graceful, dainty, elegant.

8
Non-Aesthetic

• E.g. red, noisy (non-metaphorical), square,
  curved, oval, uses impasto, unframed, mixed media.

9
Sibleys Main Concern

• The relation between non-aesthetic and aesthetic
  terms

10
According to Sibley

• Appreciating aesthetic qualities (of art, natural
  world, etc.) requires taste (i.e. an ability to
  notice or discern)

11

• No non-aesthetic qualities serve as conditions
  for applying aesthetic terms
• i.e. Cant spell out non-aesthetic conditions
  which guarantee that aesthetic qualities will be
  present (e.g. vase)
• (But may be some non-aesthetic - e.g. all pale
  blue - incompatible with some aesthetic e.g.
  garish)

12
Perception

• graceful because of that particular curve
• But disanalogy with colour perception we defend
  aesthetic judgements by talking!
• Talking sometimes gets others to see the
  aesthetic qualities

13
Aesthetic Terms

• We learn the perception of aesthetic qualities
  quite naturally from an early age
• People point out aesthetic and non-aesthetic
  features to get us to see the aesthetic onesand
  thats what critics do too