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AestheticsAesthetics (also spelled æsthetics) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, withthe creation and appreciation of beauty.[1][2] It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory orsensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.[3] More broadly, scholars in the fielddefine aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature."[4][5]

EtymologyThe word aesthetic is derived from the Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthetikos, meaning "esthetic, sensitive, sentient"), whichin turn was derived from αἰσθάνομαι (aisthanomai, meaning "I perceive, feel, sense").[6] The term "aesthetics" wasappropriated and coined with new meaning in the German form Æsthetik (modern spelling Ästhetik) by AlexanderBaumgarten in 1734.

History of aesthetics

Bronze sculpture, thought to be eitherPoseidon or Zeus, National

Archaeological Museum of Athens

Ancient aesthetics

Examples of pre-historic art are rare. The context of their production and useis unclear. Aesthetic doctrines that guided their production and interpretationare mostly unknown.

Ancient art was largely, but not entirely, based on the nine great ancientcivilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, China, Rome, India, theCeltic peoples, and Maya. Each of these centers of early civilizationdeveloped a unique and characteristic style in its art. Greece had the mostinfluence on the development of aesthetics in the West. This period of Greekart saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development ofcorresponding skills to show musculature, poise, beauty and anatomically correct proportions. Furthermore, in manyWestern and Eastern cultures alike, traits such as body hair are rarely depicted in art that addresses physical beauty.In contrast with this Greek-Western aesthetic taste is the genre of the grotesque.[7]

Greek philosophers initially felt that aesthetically appealing objects were beautiful in and of themselves. Platobelieved that for us to have a perception of beauty there must be a transcendent form for beauty in which beautifulobjects partake and which causes them to be beautiful also. He felt that beautiful objects incorporated proportion,harmony, and unity among their parts. Similarly, in the Metaphysics, Aristotle found that the universal elements ofbeauty were order, symmetry, and definiteness. An example of ancient aesthetics in Greece through poetry is Plato'squote: "For the authors of those great poems which we admire, do not attain to excellence through the rules of anyart; but they utter their beautiful melodies of verse in a state of inspiration, and, as it were, possessed by a spirit nottheir own."[8]

Islamic aestheticsIslamic art does not pertain to religion only. The term "Islamic" refers not only to the religion, but to any form of artcreated in an Islamic culture or in an Islamic context. Not all Muslims are in agreement on the use of art in religiousobservance, the proper place of art in society, or the relation between secular art and the demands placed on thesecular world to conform to religious precepts. Islamic art frequently adopts secular elements and elements that arefrowned upon, if not forbidden, by some Islamic theologians.[9]

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According to Islam, human works of art are inherently flawed compared to the work of God; thus, it is believed bymany that attempting to realistically depict the form of an animal or person is insolence to God. This tendencyaffected the narrowing field of artistic possibility to such forms of art as Arabesque, mosaic, Islamic calligraphy, andIslamic architecture, as well as any form of abstraction that can claim the status of non-representational art.Limited possibilities have been explored by artists as an outlet to artistic expression, and has been cultivated tobecome a positive style and tradition, emphasizing the decorative function of art, or its religious functions vianon-representational forms such as Geometric patterns, floral patterns, and arabesques.Human or animal depiction is generally forbidden. Muslims believe these depictions lead to sculptural pieces, whichthen leads to worship of that sculpture or "idol". Human portrayals can be found in early Islamic cultures withvarying degrees of acceptance by religious authorities. Human representation for the purpose of worship is uniformlyconsidered idolatry as forbidden in Sharia law.[10][11]

The calligraphic arts grew out of an effort to devote oneself to the study of the Quran. By patiently transcribing eachword of the text, the writer was made to contemplate the meaning of it. As time passed, these calligraphic worksbegan to be prized as works of art, growing increasingly elaborate in the illumination and stylizing of the text. Theseilluminations were applied to other works besides the Quran, and it became a respected art form in and of itself.

Indian aestheticsIndian art evolved with an emphasis on inducing special spiritual or philosophical states in the audience, or withrepresenting them symbolically. According to Kapila Vatsyayan, "Classical Indian architecture, sculpture, painting,literature (kāvya), music, and dancing evolved their own rules conditioned by their respective media, but they sharedwith one another not only the underlying spiritual beliefs of the Indian religio-philosophic mind, but also theprocedures by which the relationships of the symbol and the spiritual states were worked out in detail."In the Pan Indian philosophic thought the term 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' is another name for the concept of theSupreme. 'Sat' is the truth value, 'Shiv' is the good value & 'Sundaram' is the beauty value. Man through his 'Srabana'or education, 'Manana' or experience and conceptualization and 'Sadhana' or practice, through different stages of life(Asramas) comes to form and realize the idea of these three values to develop a value system. This Value-systemhelps us to develop two basic ideas 1) that of 'Daksha' or the adept/expert and 2) of Mahana/Parama or the Absoluteand thus to judge anything in this universe in the light of these two measures, known as 'Adarsha'. A person who hasmastered great amounts of knowledge of the grammars, rules, & language of an art-form are adepts (Daksha),whereas those who have worked through the whole system and journeyed ahead of these to become a law untothemselves is called a Mahana. Individuals idea of 'Daksha' and 'Mahana' is relative to one's development of theconcept of 'Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram.' For example, Tagore's idea of these two concepts should be way above anycommon man's and many perceive Tagore as a 'Mahana' Artist in the realm of literature. This concept ofSatyam-Shivam-Sundaram, a kind of Value Theory is the cornerstone of Indian Aesthetics.Of particular concern to Indian drama and literature are the term 'Bhava' or the state of mind and rasa referringgenerally to the emotional flavors/essence crafted into the work by the writer and relished by a 'sensitive spectator' orsahṛdaya or one with positive taste and mind. Poets like Kālidāsa were attentive to rasa, which blossomed into afully developed aesthetic system. Even in contemporary India the term rasa denoting "flavor" or "essence" is usedcolloquially to describe the aesthetic experiences in films; "māsala mix" describes popular Hindi cinema films whichserve a so-called balanced emotional meal for the masses, savored as rasa by these spectators.Rasa theory blossoms beginning with the Sanskrit text Nātyashāstra (nātya meaning "drama" and shāstra meaning "science of"), a work attributed to Bharata Muni where the Gods declare that drama is the 'Fifth Veda' because it is suitable for the degenerate age as the best form of religious instruction. While the date of composition varies wildly among scholars, ranging from the era of Plato and Aristotle to the seventh century CE. The Nātyashāstra presents the aesthetic concepts of rasas and their associated bhāvas in Chapters Six and Seven respectively, which appear to be independent of the work as a whole. Eight rasas and associated bhāvas are named and their enjoyment is likened to

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savoring a meal: rasa is the enjoyment of flavors that arise from the proper preparation of ingredients and the qualityof ingredients. What rasa actually is, in a theoretical sense, is not discussed and given the Nātyashāstra's pithywording it is unlikely the exact understanding of the original author(s) will be known.The theory of the rasas develops significantly with the Kashmiri aesthetician Ãndandavardhana's classic on poetics,the Dhvanyāloka which introduces the ninth rasa, shānta-rasa as a specifically religious feeling of peace (śānta)which arises from its bhāva, weariness of the pleasures of the world. The primary purpose of this text is to refine theliterary concept dhvani or poetic suggestion, by arguing for the existence of rasa-dhvani, primarily in forms ofSanskrit including a word, sentence or whole work "suggests" a real-world emotional state or bhāva, but thanks toaesthetic distance, the sensitive spectator relishes the rasa, the aesthetic flavor of tragedy, heroism or romance.The 9th - 10th century master of the religious system known as "the nondual Shaivism of Kashmir" (or "KashmirShaivism") and aesthetician, Abhinavagupta brought rasa theory to its pinnacle in his separate commentaries on theDhvanyāloka, the Dhvanyāloka-locana (translated by Ingalls, Masson and Patwardhan, 1992) and theAbhinavabharati, his commentary on the Nātyashāstra, portions of which are translated by Gnoli and Masson andPatwardhan. Abhinavagupta offers for the first time a technical definition of rasa which is the universal bliss of theSelf or Atman colored by the emotional tone of a drama. Shānta-rasa functions as an equal member of the set ofrasas but is simultaneously distinct being the most clear form of aesthetic bliss. Abhinavagupta likens it to the stringof a jeweled necklace; while it may not be the most appealing for most people, it is the string that gives form to thenecklace, allowing the jewels of the other eight rasas to be relished. Relishing the rasas and particularly shānta-rasais hinted as being as-good-as but never-equal-to the bliss of Self-realization experienced by yogis.

Chinese aestheticsChinese art has a long history of varied styles and emphases. Confucius emphasized the role of the arts andhumanities (especially music and poetry) in broadening human nature and aiding li (etiquette, the rites) in bringingus back to what is essential about humanity. His opponent Mozi, however, argued that music and fine arts wereclassist and wasteful, benefiting the rich over the poor.By the 4th century AD artists had started debating in writing over the proper goals of art as well. Gu Kaizhi has leftthree surviving books on the theory of painting. Several later artists or scholars both created art and wrote about thecreation of it. Religious and philosophical influences on art were common (and diverse) but never universal.

African aesthetics

The Great Mosque's signature trio of minaretsoverlooks the central market of Djenné. Unique Malian

aesthetic

African art existed in many forms and styles, and with fairly littleinfluence from outside Africa. Most of it followed traditionalforms and the aesthetic norms were handed down orally as well aswritten. Sculpture and performance art are prominent, and abstractand partially abstracted forms are valued, and were valued longbefore influence from the Western tradition began in earnest. TheNok culture is testimony to this. The mosque of Timbuktu showsthat specific areas of Africa developed unique aesthetics.

Western medieval aesthetics

Surviving medieval art is primarily religious in focus and fundedlargely by the State, Roman Catholic or Orthodox church,powerful ecclesiastical individuals, or wealthy secular patrons.

These art pieces often served a liturgical function, whether as chalices or even as church buildings themselves. Objects of fine art from this period were frequently made from rare and valuable materials, such as gold and lapis,

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the cost of which commonly exceeded the wages of the artist.Medieval aesthetics in the realm of philosophy built upon Classical thought, continuing the practice of Plotinus byemploying theological terminology in its explications. St. Bonaventure’s “Retracing the Arts to Theology”, a primaryexample of this method, discusses the skills of the artisan as gifts given by God for the purpose of disclosing God tomankind, which purpose is achieved through four lights: the light of skill in mechanical arts which discloses theworld of artifacts; which light is guided by the light of sense perception which discloses the world of natural forms;which light, consequently, is guided by the light of philosophy which discloses the world of intellectual truth; finally,this light is guided by the light of divine wisdom which discloses the world of saving truth.Saint Thomas Aquinas's aesthetic is probably the most famous and influential theory among medieval authors,having been the subject of much scrutiny in the wake of the neo-Scholastic revival of the late 19th and early 20thcenturies and even having received the approbation of the celebrated Modernist writer, James Joyce. Thomas, likemany other medievals, never gives a systematic account of beauty itself, but several scholars have conventionallyarranged his thought—though not always with uniform conclusions—using relevant observations spanning the entirecorpus of his work. While Aquinas's theory follows generally the model of Aristotle, he develops a singularaesthetics which incorporates elements unique to his thought. Umberto Eco's The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinasidentifies the three main characteristics of beauty in Aquinas's philosophy: integritas sive perfectio, consonantia sivedebita proportio, and claritas sive splendor formae. While Aristotle likewise identifies the first two characteristics,St. Thomas conceives of the third as an appropriation from principles developed by neo-Platonic and Augustinianthinkers.

Lorsch Gospels 778–820. Charlemagne's Court School.

With the shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, artlikewise changed its focus, as much in its content as in its mode ofexpression.

Modern aesthetics

From the late 17th to the early 20th century Western aestheticsunderwent a slow revolution into what is often called modernism.German and British thinkers emphasised beauty as the keycomponent of art and of the aesthetic experience, and saw art asnecessarily aiming at absolute beauty.

For Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten aesthetics is the science of thesense experiences, a younger sister of logic, and beauty is thus themost perfect kind of knowledge that sense experience can have.For Immanuel Kant the aesthetic experience of beauty is ajudgment of a subjective but similar human truth, since all peopleshould agree that “this rose is beautiful” if it in fact is. However,beauty cannot be reduced to any more basic set of features. ForFriedrich Schiller aesthetic appreciation of beauty is the mostperfect reconciliation of the sensual and rational parts of human nature.

For Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, the philosophy of art is the "organon" of philosophy concerning the relationbetween man and nature. So aesthetics began now to be the name for the philosophy of art. Friedrich von Schlegel,August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel have also given lectures onaesthetics as philosophy of art after 1800.

For Hegel all culture is a matter of "absolute spirit" coming to be manifest to itself, stage by stage, changing to aperfection that only philosophy can approach. Art is the first stage in which the absolute spirit is manifestimmediately to sense-perception, and is thus an objective rather than subjective revelation of beauty.

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For Arthur Schopenhauer aesthetic contemplation of beauty is the most free that the pure intellect can be from thedictates of will; here we contemplate perfection of form without any kind of worldly agenda, and thus any intrusionof utility or politics would ruin the point of the beauty. It is thus for Schopenhauer one way to fight the suffering.The British were largely divided into intuitionist and analytic camps. The intuitionists believed that aestheticexperience was disclosed by a single mental faculty of some kind. For Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl ofShaftesbury this was identical to the moral sense, beauty just is the sensory version of moral goodness. For LudwigWittgenstein aesthetics consisted in the description of a whole culture which is a linguistic impossibility. That whichconstitutes aesthetics lies out side the realm of the language game.For Oscar Wilde the contemplation of beauty for beauty's sake was not only the foundation for much of his literarycareer but was quoted as saying "Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of thebeautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret oflife.".[12]

Wilde famously toured the United States in 1882. He travelled across the United States spreading the idea ofAesthetics in a speech called "The English Renaissance." In his speech he proposed that Beauty and Aesthetics was"not languid but energetic. By beautifying the outward aspects of life, one would beautify the inner ones." TheEnglish Renaissance was, he said, "like the Italian Renaissance before it, a sort of rebirth of the spirit of man".[13]

William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745

For Francis Hutcheson beauty is disclosed by an inner mental sense, but is asubjective fact rather than an objective one. Analytic theorists like HenryHome, Lord Kames, William Hogarth, and Edmund Burke hoped to reducebeauty to some list of attributes. Hogarth, for example, thinks that beautyconsists of (1) fitness of the parts to some design; (2) variety in as many waysas possible; (3) uniformity, regularity or symmetry, which is only beautifulwhen it helps to preserve the character of fitness; (4) simplicity ordistinctness, which gives pleasure not in itself, but through its enabling theeye to enjoy variety with ease; (5) intricacy, which provides employment forour active energies, leading the eye on "a wanton kind of chase"; and (6)quantity or magnitude, which draws our attention and produces admirationand awe. Later analytic aestheticians strove to link beauty to some scientifictheory of psychology (such as James Mill) or biology (such as HerbertSpencer).

Post-modern aesthetics and psychoanalysisEarly-twentieth-century artists, poets and composers challenged existing notions of beauty, broadening the scope ofart and aesthetics. In 1941, Eli Siegel, American philosopher and poet, founded Aesthetic Realism, the philosophythat reality itself is aesthetic, and that "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness ofopposites."[14][15]

Various attempts have been made to define Post-modern aesthetics. The challenge to the assumption that beauty wascentral to art and aesthetics, thought to be original, is actually continuous with older aesthetic theory; Aristotle wasthe first in the Western tradition to classify "beauty" into types as in his theory of drama, and Kant made a distinctionbetween beauty and the sublime. What was new was a refusal to credit the higher status of certain types, where thetaxonomy implied a preference for tragedy and the sublime to comedy and the Rococo.Croce suggested that “expression” is central in the way that beauty was once thought to be central. George Dickie suggested that the sociological institutions of the art world were the glue binding art and sensibility into unities.[16] Marshall McLuhan suggested that art always functions as a "counter-environment" designed to make visible what is usually invisible about a society. Theodor Adorno felt that aesthetics could not proceed without confronting the role

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of the culture industry in the commodification of art and aesthetic experience. Hal Foster attempted to portray thereaction against beauty and Modernist art in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Arthur Danto hasdescribed this reaction as "kalliphobia" (after the Greek word for beauty - 'kalos').[17] André Malraux [18] explainsthat the notion of beauty was connected to a particular conception of art that arose with the Renaissance and was stilldominant in the eighteenth century (but was supplanted later). The discipline of aesthetics, which originated in theeighteenth century, mistook this transient state of affairs for a revelation of the permanent nature of art.[19] BrianMassumi suggests to reconsider beauty following the aesthetical thought in the philosophy of Deleuze andGuattari.[20]

Daniel Berlyne created the field of experimental aesthetics in the 1970s, for which he is still the most citedindividual decades after his death.[21]

Pneumaist aestheticism is a theory of art and a highly experimental approach to art negating historicalpreconceptions of the aesthetic.Jean-François Lyotard re-invokes the Kantian distinction between taste and the sublime. Sublime painting, unlikekitsch realism, "...will enable us to see only by making it impossible to see; it will please only by causingpain."[22][23]

Sigmund Freud inaugurated aesthetical thinking in Psychoanalysis mainly via the "Uncanny" as aesthetical affect.[24]

Following Freud and Merleau-Ponty,[25] Jacques Lacan theorized aesthetics in terms of sublimation and the Thing[26]

Guy Sircello pioneered efforts in analytic philosophy to develop a rigorous theory of aesthetics, focusing on theconcepts of beauty,[27] love[28] and sublimity.[29] In contrast to romantic theorists Sircello argued for the objectivityof beauty and formulated a theory of love on that basis.

Evolutionary aestheticsEvolutionary aesthetics refers to evolutionary psychology theories in which the basic aesthetic preferences of Homosapiens are argued to have evolved in order to enhance survival and reproductive success. One example being thathumans are argued to find beautiful and prefer landscapes which were good habitats in the ancestral environment.Another example is that body symmetry is an important aspect of physical attractiveness which may be due to thisindicating good health during body growth. Evolutionary explanations for aesthetical preferences are important partsof evolutionary musicology, Darwinian literary studies, and the study of the evolution of emotion.

Aesthetics and information

Initial image of a Mandelbrot set zoomsequence with continuously coloured

environment

In the 1970s, Abraham Moles and Frieder Nake were among the first toanalyze links between aesthetics, information processing, and informationtheory.[30][31]

In the 1990s, Jürgen Schmidhuber described an algorithmic theory of beautywhich takes the subjectivity of the observer into account and postulates:among several observations classified as comparable by a given subjectiveobserver, the aesthetically most pleasing one is the one with the shortestdescription, given the observer’s previous knowledge and his particularmethod for encoding the data.[32][33] This is closely related to the principlesof algorithmic information theory and minimum description length. One ofhis examples: mathematicians enjoy simple proofs with a short description intheir formal language. Another very concrete example describes an aesthetically pleasing human face whoseproportions can be described by very few bits of information,[34][35] drawing inspiration from less detailed 15th

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century proportion studies by Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer. Schmidhuber's theory explicitly distinguishesbetween what's beautiful and what's interesting, stating that interestingness corresponds to the first derivative ofsubjectively perceived beauty. Here the premise is that any observer continually tries to improve the predictabilityand compressibility of the observations by discovering regularities such as repetitions and symmetries and fractalself-similarity. Whenever the observer's learning process (which may be a predictive neural network - see alsoNeuroesthetics) leads to improved data compression such that the observation sequence can be described by fewerbits than before, the temporary interestingness of the data corresponds to the number of saved bits. This compressionprogress is proportional to the observer's internal reward, also called curiosity reward. A reinforcement learningalgorithm is used to maximize future expected reward by learning to execute action sequences that cause additionalinteresting input data with yet unknown but learnable predictability or regularity. The principles can be implementedon artificial agents which then exhibit a form of artificial curiosity.[36][37][38][39]

Applied aestheticsAs well as being applied to art, aesthetics can also be applied to cultural objects. Aesthetic coupling betweenart-objects and medical topics was made by speakers working for the US Information Agency[40] This coupling wasmade to reinforce the learning paradigm when English-language speakers used translators to address audiences intheir own country. These audiences were generally not fluent in the English language. It can also be used in topics asdiverse as mathematics, gastronomy, fashion and website design.[41][42][43]

Aesthetic ethicsAesthetic ethics refers to the idea that human conduct and behaviour ought to be governed by that which is beautifuland attractive. John Dewey[44] has pointed out that the unity of aesthetics and ethics is in fact reflected in ourunderstanding of behaviour being "fair" - the word having a double meaning of attractive and morally acceptable.More recently, James Page[45] has suggested that aesthetic ethics might be taken to form a philosophical rationale forpeace education.

Truth as beauty, mathematics, analytic philosophy, and physicsMathematical considerations, such as symmetry and complexity, are used for analysis in theoretical aesthetics. Thisis different from the aesthetic considerations of applied aesthetics used in the study of mathematical beauty.Aesthetic considerations such as symmetry and simplicity are used in areas of philosophy, such as ethics andtheoretical physics and cosmology to define truth, outside of empirical considerations. Beauty and Truth have beenargued to be nearly synonymous,[46] as reflected in the statement "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" in the poem Ode ona Grecian Urn by John Keats. The fact that judgments of beauty and judgments of truth both are influenced byprocessing fluency, which is the ease with which information can be processed, has been presented as an explanationfor why beauty is sometimes equated with truth.[47] Indeed, recent research found that people use beauty as anindication for truth in mathematical pattern tasks.[48]

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Computational inference of aestheticsSince about 2005, computer scientists have attempted to develop automated methods to infer aesthetic quality ofimages.[49][50][51] Typically, these approaches follow a machine learning approach, where large numbers ofmanually rated photographs are used to "teach" a computer about what visual properties are of relevance to aestheticquality. The Acquine engine, developed at Penn State University, rates natural photographs uploaded by users.[52]

Notable in this area is Michael Leyton, professor of psychology at Rutgers University. Leyton is the president of theInternational Society for Mathematical and Computational Aesthetics and the International Society for Group Theoryin Cognitive Science and has developed a generative theory of shape.There have also been relatively successful attempts with regard to chess and music.[53]

Aesthetic judgmentJudgments of aesthetic value rely on our ability to discriminate at a sensory level. Aesthetics examines our affectivedomain response to an object or phenomenon. Immanuel Kant, writing in 1790, observes of a man "If he says thatcanary wine is agreeable he is quite content if someone else corrects his terms and reminds him to say instead: It isagreeable to me," because "Everyone has his own (sense of) taste". The case of "beauty" is different from mere"agreeableness" because, "If he proclaims something to be beautiful, then he requires the same liking from others; hethen judges not just for himself but for everyone, and speaks of beauty as if it were a property of things."Aesthetic judgments usually go beyond sensory discrimination. For David Hume, delicacy of taste is not merely "theability to detect all the ingredients in a composition", but also our sensitivity "to pains as well as pleasures, whichescape the rest of mankind." (Essays Moral Political and Literary. Indianapolis, Literary Classics 5, 1987.) Thus, thesensory discrimination is linked to capacity for pleasure. For Kant "enjoyment" is the result when pleasure arisesfrom sensation, but judging something to be "beautiful" has a third requirement: sensation must give rise to pleasureby engaging our capacities of reflective contemplation. Judgments of beauty are sensory, emotional and intellectualall at once.Viewer interpretations of beauty possess two concepts of value: aesthetics and taste. Aesthetics is the philosophicalnotion of beauty. Taste is a result of an education process and awareness of elite cultural values learned throughexposure to mass culture. Bourdieu examined how the elite in society define the aesthetic values like taste and howvarying levels of exposure to these values can result in variations by class, cultural background, and education.[54]

According to Kant, beauty is subjective and universal; thus certain things are beautiful to everyone.[55] Thecontemporary view of beauty is not based on innate qualities, but rather on cultural specifics and individualinterpretations.

Factors involved in aesthetic judgment

Rainbows often have aesthetic appeal.

Judgments of aesthetical values seem often to involve many other kinds ofissues as well. Responses such as disgust show that sensory detection islinked in instinctual ways to facial expressions, and even behaviors like thegag reflex. Yet disgust can often be a learned or cultural issue too; as Darwinpointed out, seeing a stripe of soup in a man's beard is disgusting even thoughneither soup nor beards are themselves disgusting. Aesthetic judgments maybe linked to emotions or, like emotions, partially embodied in our physicalreactions. Seeing a sublime view of a landscape may give us a reaction of awe, which might manifest physically asan increased heart rate or widened eyes. These unconscious reactions may even be partly constitutive of what makesour judgment a judgment that the landscape is sublime.

Likewise, aesthetic judgments may be culturally conditioned to some extent. Victorians in Britain often saw African sculpture as ugly, but just a few decades later, Edwardian audiences saw the same sculptures as being beautiful.

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Evaluations of beauty may well be linked to desirability, perhaps even to sexual desirability. Thus, judgments ofaesthetic value can become linked to judgments of economic, political, or moral value.[56] In a current context, onemight judge a Lamborghini to be beautiful partly because it is desirable as a status symbol, or we might judge it to berepulsive partly because it signifies for us over-consumption and offends our political or moral values.[57]

Aesthetic judgments can often be very fine-grained and internally contradictory. Likewise aesthetic judgments seemoften to be at least partly intellectual and interpretative. It is what a thing means or symbolizes for us that is oftenwhat we are judging. Modern aestheticians have asserted that will and desire were almost dormant in aestheticexperience, yet preference and choice have seemed important aesthetics to some 20th-century thinkers. The point isalready made by Hume, but see Mary Mothersill, "Beauty and the Critic’s Judgment", in The Blackwell Guide toAesthetics, 2004. Thus aesthetic judgments might be seen to be based on the senses, emotions, intellectual opinions,will, desires, culture, preferences, values, subconscious behavior, conscious decision, training, instinct, sociologicalinstitutions, or some complex combination of these, depending on exactly which theory one employs.

Are different art forms beautiful, disgusting, or boring in the same way?A third major topic in the study of aesthetic judgments is how they are unified across art forms. We can call aperson, a house, a symphony, a fragrance, and a mathematical proof beautiful. What characteristics do they sharewhich give them that status? What possible feature could a proof and a fragrance both share in virtue of which theyboth count as beautiful? What makes a painting beautiful is quite different from what makes music beautiful, whichsuggests that each art form has its own language for the judgement of aesthetics.[58]

At the same time, there is seemingly quite a lack of words to express oneself accurately when making an aestheticjudgment. An aesthetic judgment cannot be an empirical judgement. Therefore, due to impossibility for precision,there is confusion about what interpretations can be culturally negotiated. Due to imprecision in the standard Englishlanguage, two completely different feelings experienced by two different people can be represented by an identicalverbal expression. Wittgenstein stated this in his lectures on aesthetics and language games.A collective identification of beauty, with willing participants in a given social spectrum, may be a sociallynegotiated phenomenon, discussed in a culture or context. Is there some underlying unity to aesthetic judgment andis there some way to articulate the similarities of a beautiful house, beautiful proof, and beautiful sunset?[59]

Defining it requires a description of the entire phenomenon, as Wittgenstein argued in his lectures on aesthetics.Likewise there has been long debate on how perception of beauty in the natural world, especially perception of thehuman form as beautiful, is supposed to relate to perceiving beauty in art or artefacts. This goes back at least to Kant,with some echoes even in St. Bonaventure.

Aesthetics and the philosophy of artAesthetics is for the artist as Ornithology is for the birds.

— Barnett Newman[60][61]

For some, aesthetics is considered a synonym for the philosophy of art since Hegel, while others insist that there is asignificant distinction between these closely related fields. In practice aesthetic judgement refers to the sensorycontemplation or appreciation of an object (not necessarily an art object), while artistic judgement refers to therecognition, appreciation or criticism of art or an art work.Philosophical aesthetics has not only to speak about art and to produce judgments about art works, but has also togive a definition of what art is. Art is an autonomous entity for philosophy, because art deals with the senses (i. e. theetymology of aesthetics) and art is as such free of any moral or political purpose. Hence, there are two differentconceptions of art in aesthetics : art as knowledge or art as action, but aesthetics is neither epistemology norethics.[62]

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What is "art"?

Harmony of colors

How best to define the term “art” is a subject of constant contention; manybooks and journal articles have been published arguing over even the basicsof what we mean by the term “art”.[63] Theodor Adorno claimed in 1969 “It isself-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident.”[64][65] Artists,philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists and programmers all use thenotion of art in their respective fields, and give it operational definitions thatvary considerably. Furthermore, it is clear that even the basic meaning of theterm "art" has changed several times over the centuries, and has continued toevolve during the 20th century as well.

The main recent sense of the word “art” is roughly as an abbreviation forcreative art or “fine art.” Here we mean that skill is being used to express the artist’s creativity, or to engage theaudience’s aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of the “finer” things. Often, if theskill is being used in a functional object, people will consider it a craft instead of art, a suggestion which is highlydisputed by many Contemporary Craft thinkers. Likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial wayit may be considered design instead of art, or contrariwise these may be defended as art forms, perhaps called appliedart. Some thinkers, for instance, have argued that the difference between fine art and applied art has more to do withthe actual function of the object than any clear definitional difference.[66] Art usually implies no function other thanto convey or communicate an idea.

Even as late as 1912 it was normal in the West to assume that all art aims at beauty, and thus that anything thatwasn't trying to be beautiful couldn't count as art. The cubists, dadaists, Stravinsky, and many later art movementsstruggled against this conception that beauty was central to the definition of art, with such success that, according toDanto, "Beauty had disappeared not only from the advanced art of the 1960’s but from the advanced philosophy ofart of that decade as well."[64] Perhaps some notion like "expression" (in Croce’s theories) or "counter-environment"(in McLuhan’s theory) can replace the previous role of beauty. Brian Massumi brought back "beauty" intoconsideration together with "expression".[67] Another view, as important to the philosophy of art as "beauty," is thatof the "sublime," elaborated upon in the twentieth century by the postmodern philosopher Jean-François Lyotard. Afurther approach, elaborated by André Malraux [68] in works such as The Voices of Silence, is that art isfundamentally a response to a metaphysical question ('Art', he writes, 'is an 'anti-destiny'). Malraux argues that, whileart has sometimes been oriented towards beauty and the sublime (principally in post-Renaissance European art) thesequalities, as the wider history of art demonstrates, are by no means essential to it.[69]

Perhaps (as in Kennick's theory) no definition of art is possible anymore. Perhaps art should be thought of as acluster of related concepts in a Wittgensteinian fashion (as in Weitz or Beuys). Another approach is to say that “art”is basically a sociological category, that whatever art schools and museums and artists define as art is considered artregardless of formal definitions. This "institutional definition of art" (see also Institutional Critique) has beenchampioned by George Dickie. Most people did not consider the depiction of a Brillo Box or a store-bought urinal tobe art until Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp (respectively) placed them in the context of art (i.e., the art gallery),which then provided the association of these objects with the associations that define art.Proceduralists often suggest that it is the process by which a work of art is created or viewed that makes it art, not any inherent feature of an object, or how well received it is by the institutions of the art world after its introduction to society at large. If a poet writes down several lines, intending them as a poem, the very procedure by which it is written makes it a poem. Whereas if a journalist writes exactly the same set of words, intending them as shorthand notes to help him write a longer article later, these would not be a poem. Leo Tolstoy, on the other hand, claims that what decides whether or not something is art is how it is experienced by its audience, not by the intention of its creator. Functionalists like Monroe Beardsley argue that whether or not a piece counts as art depends on what

Aesthetics 11

function it plays in a particular context; the same Greek vase may play a non-artistic function in one context(carrying wine), and an artistic function in another context (helping us to appreciate the beauty of the human figure).'

What should we judge when we judge art?

Nature provides aesthetic ideals.

Art can be difficult at the metaphysical and ontological levels as well as at thevalue theory level. When we see a performance of Hamlet, how many worksof art are we experiencing, and which should we judge? Perhaps there is onlyone relevant work of art, the whole performance, which many differentpeople have contributed to, and which will exist briefly and then disappear.Perhaps the manuscript by Shakespeare is a distinct work of art from the playby the troupe, which is also distinct from the performance of the play by thistroupe on this night, and all three can be judged, but are to be judged bydifferent standards.

Perhaps every person involved should be judged separately on his or her ownmerits, and each costume or line is its own work of art (with perhaps thedirector having the job of unifying them all). Similar problems arise formusic, film, dance, and even painting. Is one to judge the painting itself, thework of the painter, or perhaps the painting in its context of presentation bythe museum workers?These problems have been made even more difficult by the rise of conceptualart since the 1960s. Warhol’s famous Brillo Boxes are nearly indistinguishable from actual Brillo boxes at the time. Itwould be a mistake to praise Warhol for the design of his boxes (which were designed by Steve Harvey), yet theconceptual move of exhibiting these boxes as art in a museum together with other kinds of paintings is Warhol's. Arewe judging Warhol’s concept? His execution of the concept in the medium? The curator’s insight in letting Warholdisplay the boxes? The overall result? Our experience or interpretation of the result? Ontologically, how are we tothink of the work of art? Is it a physical object? Several objects? A class of objects? A mental object? A fictionalobject? An abstract object? An event? Or simply an Act?

What should art be like?Many goals have been argued for art, and aestheticians often argue that some goal or another is superior in someway. Clement Greenberg, for instance, argued in 1960 that each artistic medium should seek that which makes itunique among the possible mediums and then purify itself of anything other than expression of its own uniqueness asa form.[70] The Dadaist Tristan Tzara on the other hand saw the function of art in 1918 as the destruction of a madsocial order. “We must sweep and clean. Affirm the cleanliness of the individual after the state of madness,aggressive complete madness of a world abandoned to the hands of bandits.”[71] Formal goals, creative goals,self-expression, political goals, spiritual goals, philosophical goals, and even more perceptual or aesthetic goals haveall been popular pictures of what art should be like.

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The value of artTolstoy defined art (and by no coincidence also characterized its value) as the following: "Art is a human activityconsisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he haslived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them."The value of art, then, is one with the value of empathy. Other possible views are these: Art can act as a means tosome special kind of knowledge. Art may give insight into the human condition. Art relates to science and religion.Art serves as a tool of education, or indoctrination, or enculturation. Art makes us more moral. It uplifts usspiritually. Art is politics by other means. Art has the value of allowing catharsis. In any case, the value of art maydetermine the suitability of an art form. Do they differ significantly in their values, or (if not) in their ability toachieve the unitary value of art?But to approach the question of the value of art systematically, one ought to ask: for whom? For the artist? For theaudience? For society at large, and/or for individuals beyond the audience? Is the "value" of art different in each ofthese different contexts?Working on the intended value of art tends to help define the relations between art and other acts. Art clearly doeshave spiritual goals in many contexts, but what exactly is the difference between religious art and religion per se?The truth is complex; art is both useless in a functional sense, and also the most important human activity.An argument for the value of art, used in the fictional work The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, proceeds that, ifsome external force presenting imminent destruction of Earth asked humanity what its value was—what shouldhumanity's response be? The argument continues that the only justification humanity could give for its continuedexistence would be the past creation and continued creation of things like a Shakespeare play, a Rembrandt paintingor a Bach concerto. The suggestion is that these are the things of value which define humanity.[72]

Aesthetic universalsThe philosopher Denis Dutton identified six universal signatures in human aesthetics:[73]

1.1. Expertise or virtuosity. Humans cultivate, recognize, and admire technical artistic skills.2.2. Nonutilitarian pleasure. People enjoy art for art's sake, and don't demand that it keep them warm or put food on

the table.3.3. Style. Artistic objects and performances satisfy rules of composition that place them in a recognizable style.4.4. Criticism. People make a point of judging, appreciating, and interpreting works of art.5.5. Imitation. With a few important exceptions like abstract painting, works of art simulate experiences of the world.6.6. Special focus. Art is set aside from ordinary life and made a dramatic focus of experience.It might be objected, however, that there are rather too many exceptions to Dutton's categories. For example, theinstallations of the contemporary artist Thomas Hirschhorn deliberately eschew technical virtuosity. People canappreciate a Renaissance Madonna for aesthetic reasons, but such objects often had (and sometimes still have)specific devotional functions. "Rules of composition" that might be read into Duchamp's Fountain or John Cage's4′33″ do not locate the works in a recognizable style (or certainly not a style recognizable at the time of the works'realisation). Moreover, some of Dutton's categories seem too broad: a physicist might entertain hypothetical worldsin his/her imagination in the course of formulating a theory. Another problem is that Dutton's categories seek touniversalise traditional European notions of aesthetics and art forgetting that, as André Malraux and others havepointed out, there have been large numbers of cultures in which such ideas (including the idea "art" itself) werenon-existent.[74]

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CriticismThe philosophy of aesthetics as a practice has been criticized by some sociologists and writers of art and society.Raymond Williams argues that there is no unique and or individual aesthetic object which can be extrapolated fromthe art world, but that there is a continuum of cultural forms and experience of which ordinary speech andexperiences may signal as art. By "art" we may frame several artistic "works" or "creations" as so though thisreference remains within the institution or special event which creates it and this leaves some works or other possible"art" outside of the frame work, or other interpretations such as other phenomenon which may not be considered as"art". Pierre Bourdieu disagrees with Kant's idea of the "aesthetic". He argues that Kant's "aesthetic" merelyrepresents an experience that is the product of an elevated class habitus and scholarly leisure as opposed to otherpossible and equally valid "aesthetic" experiences which lay outside Kant's narrow definition.

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[31] F Nake (1974). Ästhetik als Informationsverarbeitung. (Aesthetics as information processing). Grundlagen und Anwendungen derInformatik im Bereich ästhetischer Produktion und Kritik. Springer, 1974, ISBN 3-211-81216-4, ISBN 978-3-211-81216-7

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15(6):1174–1178[49] Datta, R.; Joshi, D.; Li, J.; Wang, J. (2006). "Studying aesthetics in photographic images using a computational approach" (http:/ / www.

springerlink. com/ content/ j062q28222k34382/ ). Europ. Conf. on Computer Vision. Springer. .[50] Wong, L.-K.; Low, K.-L. (2009). "Saliency-enhanced image aesthetic classification" (http:/ / ieeexplore. ieee. org/ xpl/ freeabs_all.

jsp?arnumber=5413825). Int. Conf. on Image Processing. IEEE. .[51] Wu, Y.; Bauckhage, C.; Thurau, C. (2010). "The good, the bad, and the ugly: predicting aesthetic image labels" (http:/ / ieeexplore. ieee.

org/ search/ freesrchabstract. jsp?tp=& arnumber=5595805). Int. Conf. on Pattern Recognition. IEEE. .[52] "Aesthetic Quality Inference Engine - Instant Impersonal Assessment of Photos" (http:/ / acquine. alipr. com). Penn State University.

Archived (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20090509101935/ http:/ / acquine. alipr. com/ ) from the original on 9 May 2009. . Retrieved 21June 2009.

[53][53] Manaris, B., Roos, P., Penousal, M., Krehbiel, D., Pellicoro, L. and Romero, J.; A Corpus-Based Hybrid Approach to Music Analysis andComposition; Proceedings of 22nd Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-07); Vancouver, BC; 839-845 2007.

[54][54] Bourdieu, Pierre (1984). Distinction. Routledge. ISBN 0-674-21277-0[55] http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ aesthetic-judgment/[56] Holm, Ivar (2006). Ideas and Beliefs in Architecture and Industrial design: How attitudes, orientations, and underlying assumptions shape

the built environment. Oslo School of Architecture and Design. ISBN 82-547-0174-1.[57] Korsmeyer, Carolyn ed. Aesthetics: The Big Questions 1998[58] Consider Clement Greenberg’s arguments in "On Modernist Painting" (1961), reprinted in Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of Arts.[59] Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Judgment.[60] Barnett Newman Foundation, Chronology, 1952 (http:/ / www. barnettnewman. org/ chronology. php) Retrieved August 30, 2010[61] The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art, By Arthur Coleman Danto, p.1, Published by Open Court Publishing, 2003, ISBN

0-8126-9540-2, ISBN 978-0-8126-9540-3[62] Annemarie Gethmann-Siefert, Introduction to Aesthetics (Einführung in die Ästhetik), Munich, Wilhelm Fink, 1995, p. 7.[63][63] Davies, 1991, Carroll, 2000, et al.[64][64] Danto, 2003[65][65] Goodman,[66][66] Novitz, 1992

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[67] Brian Massumi, Deleuze, Guattari and the Philosophy of Expression, CRCL, 24:3, 1997.[68] http:/ / home. netspeed. com. au/ derek. allan/ default. htm[69] Derek Allan. Art and the Human Adventure. André Malraux’s Theory of Art. (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009)[70] Clement Greenberg, “On Modernist Painting”.[71][71] Tristan Tzara, Sept Manifestes Dada.[72] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams[73] Denis Dutton's Aesthetic Universals summarized by Steven Pinker in The Blank Slate[74] Derek Allan, Art and the Human Adventure: André Malraux's Theory of Art. (Amsterdam: Rodopi. 2009)

Further reading• Chung-yuan, Chang (1963/1970). Creativity and Taoism, A Study of Chinese Philosophy, Art, and Poetry. New

York: Harper Torchbooks. ISBN 0-06-131968-6.• Handbook of Phenomenological Aesthetics. Edited by Hans Rainer Sepp and Lester Embree. (Series:

Contributions To Phenomenology, Vol. 59) Springer, Dordrecht / Heidelberg / London / New York 2010. ISBN978-90-481-2470-1

• Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1997.• Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy of Literature, New York, NY, New American Library, 1971• Derek Allan (http:/ / www. home. netspeed. com. au/ derek. allan/ default. htm), Art and the Human Adventure,

Andre Malraux's Theory of Art, Rodopi, 2009• Augros, Robert M., Stanciu, George N., The New Story of Science: mind and the universe, Lake Bluff, Ill.:

Regnery Gateway, c1984. ISBN 0-89526-833-7 (has significant material on Art, Science and their philosophies)• John Bender and Gene Blocker Contemporary Philosophy of Art: Readings in Analytic Aesthetics 1993.• Christine Buci-Glucksmann (2003), Esthétique de l'éphémère, Galilée. (French)• Noël Carroll (2000), Theories of Art Today, University of Wisconsin Press.• Mario Costa (1999) (in Italian), L’estetica dei media. Avanguardie e tecnologia, Milan: Castelvecchi, ISBN

88-8210-165-7.• Benedetto Croce (1922), Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic.• E. S. Dallas (1866), The Gay Science, 2 volumes, on the aesthetics of poetry.• Danto, Arthur (2003), The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art, Open Court.• Stephen Davies (1991), Definitions of Art.• Terry Eagleton (1990), The Ideology of the Aesthetic. Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-16302-6•• Feagin and Maynard (1997), Aesthetics. Oxford Readers.• Penny Florence and Nicola Foster (eds.) (2000), Differential Aesthetics. London: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-1493-X•• Berys Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes (eds.), "Routledge Companion to Aesthetics". London: Routledge, 2005.

ISBN 0-415-32798-9• Annemarie Gethmann-Siefert (1995), Einführung in die Ästhetik, Munich, W. Fink.• David Goldblatt and Lee Brown, ed. (1997), Aesthetics: A Reader in the Philosophy of the Arts.• Greenberg, Clement (1960), "Modernist Painting", The Collected Essays and Criticism 1957–1969, The

University of Chicago Press, 1993, 85-92.• Evelyn Hatcher (ed.), Art as Culture: An Introduction to the Anthropology of Art. 1999• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1975), Aesthetics. Lectures on Fine Art, trans. T.M. Knox, 2 vols. Oxford:

Clarendon Press.• Hans Hofmann and Sara T Weeks; Bartlett H Hayes; Addison Gallery of American Art; Search for the real, and

other essays (http:/ / www. worldcatlibraries. org/ oclc/ 1125858& referer=brief_results) (Cambridge, Mass.,M.I.T. Press, 1967) OCLC 1125858

• Michael Ann Holly and Keith Moxey (eds.), Art History and Visual Studies. Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN0-300-09789-1

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• Carol Armstrong and Catherine de Zegher (eds.), Women Artists at the Millenium. Massachusetts: OctoberBooks/MIT Press, 2006. ISBN 0-262-01226-X

• Kant, Immanuel (1790), Critique of Judgement, Translated by Werner S. Pluhar, Hackett Publishing Co., 1987.• Kelly, Michael (Editor in Chief) (1998) Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

4 voll., pp. XVII-521, pp. 555, pp. 536, pp. 572; 2224 total pages; 100 b/w photos; ISBN 978-0-19-511307-5.Covers philosophical, historical, sociological, and biographical aspects of Art and Aesthetics worldwide.

•• Alexander J. Kent, "Aesthetics: A Lost Cause in Cartographic Theory?" The Cartographic Journal, 42(2) 182-8,2005.

• Søren Kierkegaard (1843), Either/Or, translated by Alastair Hannay, London, Penguin, 1992• Peter Kivy (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics. 2004• Carolyn Korsmeyer (ed.), Aesthetics: The Big Questions. 1998• Lyotard, Jean-François (1979), The Postmodern Condition, Manchester University Press, 1984.• Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1969), The Visible and the Invisible, Northwestern University Press.• Martinus Nijhoff, A History of Six Ideas: an Essay in Aesthetics, The Hague, 1980.• David Novitz (1992), The Boundaries of Art.• Mario Perniola, The Art and Its Shadow, foreword by Hugh J.Silverman, translated by Massimo Verdicchio,

London-NewYork, Continuum, 2004.• Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, 1974, paperpack, or hardback

first edition ISBN 0-688-00230-7• Griselda Pollock, "Does Art Think?" In: Dana Arnold and Margaret Iverson (eds.) Art and Thought. Oxford: Basil

Blackwell, 2003. 129-174. ISBN 0-631-22715-6.• Griselda Pollock, Encounters in the Virtual Feminist Museum: Time, Space and the Archive. Routledge, 2007.

ISBN 0-415-41374-5.• Griselda Pollock, Generations and Geographies in the Visual Arts. Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0-415-14128-1.• George Santayana (1896) , The Sense of Beauty. Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory. New York, Modern

Library, 1955.• Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just. Princeton, 2001. ISBN 978-0-691-08959-1• Friedrich Schiller, (1795), On the Aesthetic Education of Man. Dover Publications, 2004.• Alan Singer and Allen Dunn (eds.), Literary Aesthetics: A Reader. Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2000. ISBN

978-0-631-20869-3• Władysław Tatarkiewicz, History of Aesthetics, 3 vols. (1–2, 1970; 3, 1974), The Hague, Mouton.• Markand Thakar Looking for the 'Harp' Quartet: An Investigation into Musical Beauty. University of Rochester

Press, 2011.• Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art?, Penguin Classics, 1995.• The London Philosophy Study Guide (http:/ / www. ucl. ac. uk/ philosophy/ LPSG/ ) offers many suggestions on

what to read, depending on the student's familiarity with the subject: Aesthetics (http:/ / www. ucl. ac. uk/philosophy/ LPSG/ Aesthetics. htm)

• John M. Valentine, Beginning Aesthetics: An Introduction To The Philosophy of Art. McGraw-Hill, 2006. ISBN978-0-07-353754-2

•• von Vacano, Diego, "The Art of Power: Machiavelli, Nietzsche and the Making of Aesthetic Political Theory,"Lanham MD: Lexington: 2007.

• Thomas Wartenberg, The Nature of Art. 2006.• John Whitehead, Grasping for the Wind. 2001.• Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lectures on aesthetics, psychology and religious belief, Oxford, Blackwell, 1966.• Richard Wollheim, Art and its objects, 2nd edn, 1980, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29706-0• Sen, R. K., Aesthetic Enjoyment: Its Background in Philosophy and Medicine, Calcutta: University of Calcutta,

1966

Aesthetics 17

External links• Aesthetics (https:/ / inpho. cogs. indiana. edu/ taxonomy/ 2247) at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project• Aesthetics (http:/ / philpapers. org/ browse/ aesthetics) at PhilPapers• Aesthetics (http:/ / www. iep. utm. edu/ aestheti) entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy• Revue online Appareil (http:/ / revues. mshparisnord. org/ appareil/ index. php?id=61)• Postscript 1980- Some Old Problems in New Perspectives (http:/ / www. ditext. com/ anka/ beardsley/ post. html)• Aesthetics in Art Education: A Look Toward Implementation (http:/ / www. ericdigests. org/ pre-9219/ art. htm)• An history of aesthetics (http:/ / www. kunstbewegung. info/ de/

Revised_interpretation_of_founding's_and_concepts_through_an_history_of_aesthetics)• The Concept of the Aesthetic (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ aesthetic-concept)• Aesthetics (http:/ / www. rep. routledge. com/ article/ M046) entry in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy• Philosophy of Aesthetics (http:/ / www. philosophyarchive. com/ index. php?title=Philosophy_of_Aesthetics)

entry in the Philosophy Archive• Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges: Introduction to Aesthetics (http:/ / www. saylor.

org/ site/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2011/ 12/ Module-1. pdf)

Article Sources and Contributors 18

Article Sources and ContributorsAesthetics  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=533499586  Contributors: 13alexander, 17Drew, 1exec1, 64.2.46.xxx, 777sms, A Softer Answer, A8UDI, ABF, AJD, Aaaaaaaaak,Aalit4, Abce2, Abdullais4u, Acabtp, Acadēmica Orientālis, Aidan Kehoe, Aknxy, Alan Liefting, Alansohn, Aletheia, AlexLibman, Alexjohnc3, Alison, Allen3, Allens, Alpha456, Aman13preet,AmishArmadillo, Anagramology, Anarchia, Andypandy.UK, Angela, Anikingos, Anlace, Anonymouswikieditor, Anria, Antandrus, Anthony Krupp, AntiWhilst, Apsweaver, Arify4,Aristophanes68, Armando Navarro, Artethical, AshBlue, Ashindo, AshleyOz, Audrey, Avenugopalarao2011, Averaver, Aymatth2, Azlan Iqbal, B.K.S.J., BMF81, Babacol, Backpackadam,Baher, Balivernes, Banno, Barasoaindarra, Bellhalla, Bennelliott, Bento00, Berislav, Bhamfree, Big Bird, Bigggny, Billych, Birkinstein, Bleedingshoes, Bloodshedder, Blue-Haired Lawyer,Bmicomp, Bmorton3, Bobblewik, Boing! said Zebedee, Bomac, Bondi444, Boneheadmx, Bongwarrior, Bookgrrl, Bornhj, Boudreauxgg, Brad7777, Bradjohns, Braincricket, BrightStarSky, BrionVIBBER, Brosi, Brossow, Btdurant, BullRangifer, Bulldog73, Bus stop, CLW, Cailil, Calabe1992, CallidusUlixes, Calliopejen1, Caltas, Camblast, Can't sleep, clown will eat me,CanadianLinuxUser, Cantiana, Carbon-16, Catgut, Caton, Ceoil, CharlieHuang, Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry, CheshireKatz, Chevrefoil, Chi Sigma, Chloroform42, Chowbok, Chris Roy,Chris the speller, Christofurio, Citengam, ClanCC, Cmgjr, CodySteed, Cold Season, Colonies Chris, Comatmebro, CommonsDelinker, Conscious, Conversion script, Countskull, Courcelles,DA3N, DBigXray, DMacks, DVD R W, DVdm, Daniel C. Boyer, Daven200520, David Gale, David Levy, David91, DavidKennerly, DavidMonk, DavidParfitt, Dcoetzee, Debaryabanerjee,Declare, Dekimasu, Deli nk, Demonhunter698, DennisDaniels, Deputyduck, DerHexer, Derpderpderp2011, Deviator13, Dgies, Differo, Doktorcan, Don4of4, Doraannao, Doremítzwr, Dr.enh,Drumguy8800, DryaUnda, Dspradau, Dumbleton, Dungodung, Dysmorodrepanis, E rulez, ESkog, Ego White Tray, Egpetersen, Einmonim, Ekki01, El C, Ellis.ebineezer.ellis, Ellywa, Endomion,Epbr123, Erianna, Ericoides, Esteve83, Ethicoaestheticist, Everyking, Ewulp, Excirial, ExplicitImplicity, Fabartus, Fatal error, Fconaway, Feezo, Fifelfoo, FigureArtist, Filam3nt, Fleabox,Fmuratozdemir, Fourdee, Foxj, Fraterm, Fredrik, Freshacconci, Fsvallare, Funeral, Furrykef, Fuzzy artist, Gadget850, Gandalf61, Gene Ward Smith, Giftlite, Gimmetrow, GirasoleDE,Gkerkvliet, Glenn, Go for it!, Goethean, Gogo Dodo, GoingBatty, Gonzonoir, Goodnightmush, Gopanraman, Grafen, Greatgavini, Greenbreezegrl, Greg Tyler, Gregbard, Grubber, Gurch,Gverstraete, Gwen-chan, Hackwrench, Hadi Payami, HaeB, Haham hanuka, Hairhorn, Halaqah, Halaster, Hanwufu, Haruth, Headbomb, Hermeses, Heron, Herschelkrustofsky, Heyoh123,Hiplibrarianship, Historicaltruthtroll, Hoof Hearted, Hu12, Hyacinth, I'd Buy That for a Dollar, Ideyal, Ihcoyc, Infinity0, Inkling, Interstates, Inwind, Ironie, IstvanWolf, Ivan Štambuk, JFHJr,JMK, JNW, JRR Trollkien, JaGa, Jagged 85, Jahsonic, Jambamkin, Jamessmithpage, Jasper Chua, Jauhienij, Javierito92, Jbmurray, Jcbutler, Jeff G., JeffC, Jeffcrane, Jeffmilner, Jesuseatsyou,Jim1138, JimR, Jlphaneuf, Jni, JoanneB, John Ellsworth, John Fader, John of Reading, JohnManuel, Johnbod, Jonathan Stokes, Jossi, Joustinjustin, Joymmart, Jpbowen, Jrorowling, Jujutacular,Julianbce, KSchutte, Kalsikum, Kaobear, Kaotic.nite, Keith.Nichol, Knotnic, Korg, Kubigula, LCP, Lackthereof, Ladyxtrust, LainEverliving, Lament, Lamro, Lara bran, Large Glass, Lee DanielCrocker, Leranedo, Lestrade, Levineps, LilHelpa, Lisatruman, Loggie, Logologist, Lucidish, Luckas Blade, Ludwigs2, Luna Santin, Lusciious420, LyleHoward, Lysander89, M.thoriyan,MLeigh11, Mac Davis, Magister Mathematicae, Makeemlighter, Malik Shabazz, Mandarax, Mani1, Manticore, Manytexts, Maqs, Markwalters79, MarylandArtLover, Matt Gies, Matturn,Meaghan, Mediaphd, Meinolf Wewel, Merbabu, Merond e, Michael Hardy, Michaeldsuarez, Miegoreng, Mike Rosoft, Mikeo, Mild Bill Hiccup, Minesweeper, Missmarple, Modernist,MoogleFan, MrOllie, Mshonle, Munci, Muratkaraci, Mus Musculus, Mwanner, MyNameWasTaken, NCurse, NJA, Nachoman-au, Nakon, Nano Dan, Naohiro19, Nasnema, Nathan43,NawlinWiki, Neelix, Neko-chan, Neutron Jack, Nick Denkens, NickCT, Nikai, Nisann, Nivix, Numbo3, Nunatan, Nádvorník, Ocolon, Ohnoitsjamie, Omegatron, Omnipaedista, Omnipolex,OnBeyondZebrax, Open2universe, Ori Redler, Otisjimmy1, Outriggr, Owen, Pajz, Palfrey, Paul August, Pearle, Pereztonella, Persian Poet Gal, Pgk, PhiloFaster, Piano non troppo, Pinethicket,Pink!Teen, Pjoef, Pleasantville, Ponkje, Poor Yorick, Porges, Positron222, Postmodern Beatnik, Promethean, Prsephone1674, Psp2010, QRX, Quadell, Qwertyus, R'n'B, RJaguar3, RandomP,Ratiuglink, Raven in Orbit, Raven4x4x, Ravencao, Razorazar69, Redvers, Renewolf, Research Method, RexNL, Rholton, Rich Farmbrough, Rich Janis, Rich257, Richard001, Richarddecker,Rick Block, Ricky81682, Rigadoun, RiskyMechanics, Rjwilmsi, Robth, Rodasmith, Ronz, Roseworthy, Rotational, Rucha58, Ruckus666, SabaKahn, Sam Korn, Samuel Blanning, Sandris.Ā,Sardanaphalus, Schard, Scorpion451, Scott3, Screambd1, Scythia, Sdornan, Seangies, Seberle, Sebesta, Selket, SemperPirate, Serinde, SeventyThree, Shabidoo, Shanec057, Shell Kinney,Sjakkalle, Skaspiegel, Skomorokh, Slac, Slider360, Sluzzelin, Snow1215, Socialmedian, Solace098, Sournick3, Sparkit, Spartan 1200, SpngeBobSquarePants, Squandermania, Squib, Srose,St.daniel, StasMalyga, Ste4k, Steven41111, Stinkypie, Stratadrake, Summalogicae, SummerWithMorons, SvAbhinava, Symane, T.V. A'hearn, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?, Tamsier, Tassedethe,Tatterfly, Tautologist, Taxisfolder, Tedneeman, Teller33, Tere, The Interior, The Man in Question, The Thing That Should Not Be, The Transhumanist, The Utahraptor, TheOtherStephan,TheRingess, Theda, Think outside the box, Thomascochrane, Thompsontough, Thunder4848, Tide rolls, TimNelson, TimVickers, Tired time, Todowd, Tombomp, TreasuryTag, Tresiden, TrevorMacInnis, Trouver, Trynen, Twartenb, Twas Now, Tyrenius, U10362779, Ulric1313, Uncle Milty, UrbanIndianSF, Urthogie, Useight, User27091, User6854, Valueyou, Veggies, Versageek,Vildricianus, Viola Tristan, Violetriga, Violncello, Vishvas vasuki, VolatileChemical, Waggers, Wahabijaz, Wavelength, WebFlower1, Wehpudicabok, West.andrew.g, Wetman, Where, WhiteC,Who, Widr, Wikiklrsc, Wikilibrarian, Williamv1138, Winchelsea, Winston365, Wintran, Wipfeln, Wolfdog, Wooddoo-eng, Woohookitty, Yandman, Ycdkwm, Yidisheryid, Yk Yk Yk,Ymirfrostgiant, Ynh, Yoasif, ZapThunderstrike, Zarboki, Zeezbrah, Zigger, Zyzzbrah, Zzuuzz, 979 ,مناار anonymous edits

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