[SAP 6] 18th Century British Aesthetics

3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Francis Hutcheson, Edmund Burke, David Hume

Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)• English politician, philosopher and writer.• Shaftesbury’s major work Characteristics of Men, Manners,

Opinions, Times (first edition published 1711) is an anthology of five previously published essays, sometimes with substantial revisions: An Inquiry Concerning Virtue or Merit (1699); A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm (1708); Sensus Communis, An Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humor (1709); The Moralists, A Philosophical Rhapsody (1709); and Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author (1710). *)

On «beauty »Three-part hierarchy of beauty:The lowest order of beauty belongs to “the dead

forms”—physical things such as manmade works of art and natural objects

The second order of beauty belongs to human minds, or “the forms which form, that is, which have intelligence, action, and operation”

The third order of beauty belongs to that “which forms not only such as we call mere forms but even the forms which form” This highest, most supreme and sovereign beauty, belongs to God, who has created everything in the world, including human minds.

On «disinterestedness»

Aesthetic appreciation is essentially disinterested. True aesthetic appreciation of an object (like the motivation underlying true moral conduct) is independent of any ideas of how the object might promote one's own interests.

Aesthetic judgment was non-egoistic and objectivist correct aesthetic judgment was disinterested and reflected accurately the harmonious cosmic order.

Conclusion: Shaftesbury is against “egoistic” (promoting self-interest) point of view.

On «Aesthetic autonomy »

One logical conclusion from the concept of “disinterestedness” is that “Aesthetics is autonomous”, the value of art is utterly distinct from value of any other sort; Aesthetic responses are utterly distinct from any other responses.

On « virtue and beauty »Virtue is a species of beauty virtue and

beauty are “one and the same”The motive to act virtuously is the same as

(or one example of) an artist's motive to create beauty.

The virtuous person is one who attempts to make his or her life a thing of moral beauty in the same way that an artist tries to make beautiful works of art.

Developing good taste is a duty in the same way that developing a virtuous character is.

Francis Hutcheson (1694 – 1746)• A philosopher born in Ireland to a family of

Scottish Presbyterians; famous for becoming one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment*)

• Producing four essays: 1) the Inquiry concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony and Design, 2) the Inquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil [1725], 3) the Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections and 4) Illustrations upon the Moral Sense [1728].

• His thoughts were influenced by Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713) and Joseph Addison (1672–1719). Influencing Adam Smith (1723 – 1790) and David Hume (1723 – 1790).

On « Sense(s) »

Man has a variety of senses, internal as well as external, reflex as well as direct.

Hutcheson definition of sense: “any determination of our minds to receive ideas independently on our will, and to have perceptions of pleasure and pain“

Six Internal Sense Theory 1. Consciousness, by which each man has a perception of himself and

of all that is going on in his own mind (Metaph. Syn. pars i. cap. 2)2. The sense of beauty (sometimes called specifically "an internal

sense")3. A public sense, or sensus communis, "a determination to be pleased

with the happiness of others and to be uneasy at their misery“4. The moral sense, or "moral sense of beauty in actions and affections,

by which we perceive virtue or vice, in ourselves or others“5. A sense of honour, or praise and blame, "which makes the

approbation or gratitude of others the necessary occasion of pleasure, and their dislike, condemnation or resentment of injuries done by us the occasion of that uneasy sensation called shame“

6. A sense of the ridiculous. It is plain, as the author confesses, that there may be "other perceptions, distinct from all these classes," and, in fact, there seems to be no limit to the number of "senses" in which a psychological division of this kind might result.

Hutcheson’s Aesthetics1) We are endowed with a special sense by which we

perceive beauty, harmony and proportion. 2) This is a reflex sense, because it presupposes the action

of the external senses of sight and hearing. 3) It may be called an internal sense, because (a) to

distinguish its perceptions from the mere perceptions of sight and hearing, and (b) "in some other affairs, where our external senses are not much concerned, we discern a sort of beauty, very like in many respects to that observed in sensible objects, and accompanied with like pleasure"

4) Beauty [could also be] perceived in universal truths, in the operations of general causes and in moral principles and actions. Thus, beauty is closely related with virtue.

Hutcheson’s « uniformity amidst variety”The sense of beauty is internal because the

arising of the pleasurable idea of beauty depends “upon the previous Reception and Comparison of various sensible Perceptions … or intellectual ideas, when we find Uniformity … among them”

So it is in the perception of objects of intellect—theorems, namely—that the internal sense of beauty has its raison d'etre, and it is by resembling theorems in point of uniformity that other objects, including material objects, are beautiful.

Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

An Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher.

Main work on Aesthetics, Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)

Sublime vs. Beautiful• Sublimity is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual,

metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation (such as grand object like mountain; infinity of outer space).

• The sublime and the beautiful are mutually exclusive, to the same degree as light and darkness.

• According to Burke, the pleasure of beauty has a relaxing effect on the fibers of the body, whereas sublimity, in contrast, tightens these fibers.

• Beauty may be accentuated by light, but Intense light or Intense darkness (the absence of light) is sublime to the degree that it can obliterate the sight of an object.

• Experiencing the “Sublime” The imagination is moved to awe and instilled with a degree of horror by what is "dark, uncertain, and confused.”

• Each can produce pleasure. The sublime may inspire horror / tremble, but one receives pleasure in knowing that the perception is a fiction.

Three quotations on the « Sublime »• “WHATEVER is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and

danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.” *)

• "The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature . . . is Astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its object, that it cannot entertain any other." [Burke, On the Sublime, ed. J. T. Bolton. 58]**)

• “The ideas of the sublime and the beautiful stand on foundations so different, that it is hard, I had almost said impossible, to think of reconciling them in the same subject, without considerably lessening the effect of the one or the other upon the passions”

Sublime and Delight• The sensation attributed to the sublime is a "negative

pain,“ called delight, and which is distinct from positive pleasure (such as love).

• Delight is the removal of pain (caused by confronting the sublime object) and is supposedly more intense than positive pleasure.

• Delight also implies the subject's realization of his physical limitations [a difference with Kant who emphasized a supposed sense of moral or spiritual transcendence of the subject]

David Hume (1711 – 1776)• A Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known

especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism.• David Hume's views on aesthetic theory and the philosophy of

art are to be found in his work on moral theory and in several essays.

• Although there is a tendency to emphasize the two essays devoted to art, “Of the Standard of Taste” and “Of Tragedy,” his views on art and aesthetic judgment are intimately connected to his moral philosophy and theories of human thought and emotion.

• His theory of taste and beauty is not entirely original, but his arguments generally display the keen analysis typical of his best work

Hume, Addison, HutchesonHume's theory is most firmly rooted in the work of Joseph Addison and

Francis Hutcheson. Hume retains the idea that the values within the scope of criticism are

essentially pleasures of the human imagination. Although Hume acknowledges cases where beauty seems a merely

sensory pleasure, he emphasizes beauty's status as a cognitive pleasure.

Taking beauty as his paradigm case of such a value, Hume combines Addison's theory of taste as an operation of imagination with Hutcheson's proposal that emotions are the foundation of moral judgment.

Elaborating on the “inner sense” theory, Hume endorses Hutcheson's stance on the general question of the nature of both moral and aesthetic value. Value judgments are expressions of taste rather than reasoned analysis. Values cannot be addressed except in the context of a general theory about our shared human nature.

Although recognition of aesthetic and moral beauty is a manifestation of taste (and perhaps they cannot ultimately be distinguished from one another), taste must not be dismissed as subjective, idiosyncratic preference.

Hume’s Aesthetics (01)• Beauty is a feeling of approbation, and an original, simple

impression of the mind. Impressions are contrasted with ideas, which he alternatively calls “thoughts.” Ideas are “copies” of impressions, and seldom have the force or clarity of the experiences they copy.

• For Hume, experiencing beauty is a necessary condition for thinking about the idea of beauty. An individual cannot construct the idea of beauty out of other ideas, which is equivalent to saying that the idea derives from the proper sentiment of approbation (T, 469). In the complete absence of the operations of taste, thoughts about beauty would not occur.

Hume’s Aesthetics (02)• We do not infer that a sunset is beautiful and so

deserving of approbation. We see the sunset, and the visual impressions please us. If we have the proper point of view, we are justified in saying that the sunset is beautiful. This verdict is more than a report or expression of the sentiment, yet the sentiment is an irreplaceable element of the judgment. A parallel claim is made of moral discrimination. “Pleasure and pain,” he insists, are the “essence” of beauty and deformity

Hume’s Aesthetics (03)• Hume proposes that feeling, not thought, informs us that an object

is beautiful or ugly, or that an action exhibits virtue or vice: “The very feeling constitutes our praise or admiration”

• The feeling or sentiment is itself an aesthetic or moral discrimination. It is prior to, and the basis of, any subsequent expression of praise or admiration.

• The sentiment is the beauty of the object and it is the virtue of desirable human action.

• Sentiment is the sole source of values governing human activity. It is calm rather than violent.

• Taste is a “productive faculty, and gilding or staining all natural objects with the colours, borrowed from internal sentiment, raises, in a manner, a new creation.”

• That new creation is “beauty and deformity, virtue and vice” (EPM, 294).