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56 Cards in this Set

  • Front
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5 ideal-typical viewpoints

- Imitation


- Expression


- Formalism


- Synthesis of form and expression


- Aesthetic judgement

5 aspects aesthetics is concerned with

- Artist


- Artwork


- Art viewer


- Physical reality

Imitation theory

Theory that art has the ability to imitate/represent reality (as perceived through the senses)

Mimesis

Representation of reality, including social or inner reality

Plato: Mimesis

- Ontology: Metaphysics; theory of ideal forms


-Truth, morality as beautiful (not vice versa)


- Condemnation of art as immoral, since it is untrue (and therefore not beautiful)

Plato: Theory of ideal forms

??

Plato: Productive vs. imitative arts

Craftsman, who represent ideal forms (morally superior) vs. artists, who copy representations

Aristotle: Mimesis

- Shift from idealism to realism


- Representation of the general rather than the specific


- Representation of what is possible rather than what is actual

Idealism vs. Realism

-Idealism: Art as incapable of creating an exact imitation




-Realism: Art as capable of creating an exact imitation

Gombrich

Representation is dependent on the artist’s preconceptions (artists see what they paint, not paint what they see)




Representation constrained by conventions,conceptual schemes, and medium

Goodwin

- How realistic an artwork is depends on the extent to which the thing being portrayed is stereotyped; i.e. realism is a matter of habit




-Reproduction of reality as based on symbols

Mimesis: Artist's studio: Magritte & Giacometti

???

Kant: Transcendental Philosophy

Explores the question of how it is possible that we can have empirical, moral, or aesthetics experiences; attempts to define conditions that are given a priori

Kant: 3 Types of judgements

- Empirical judgements: (true or false; e.g. this flower is violet)


- Moral judgement (e.g. This flower should be protected)


- Aesthetic judgment (e.g. this flower is beautiful)

Kant's 3 critiques

Critique of pure reason: What can I know? What are the a priori conditions that make empirical judgements possible?




Critique of practical reason: What should I do? What are the a priori conditions that make moral judgements possible?




Critique of judgement: What may I hope for? What are the a priori conditions that make aesthetic judgements possible?

Kant: Critique of pure reason: 3 dimensions



- Transcendental aesthetic


- Trascendental logic/analytic


- Transcendental dialectic

Kant: Critique of pure reason: Transcendental aesthetic

- Sensibility: Faculty of intuition that allows us to intuit individual objects; this intuition then arouses sensations




- A priori conditions: Space and time (determine our sensibility)




- What is perceived is not the actual object (the noumenon) but the object as interpreted by ones sensibility (the phenomenon)

Kant: Critique of pure reason: Transcendental logic/analytic

- Understanding: Faculty that allows us to apply concepts to raw material offered by our sense impressions




- A priori conditions: concepts (determine our understanding)

Kant: Critique of pure reason: Transcendental dialectic

Reason/vernuft: Faculty of ideas which makes knowledge coherent




- A priori conditions: ideas (determines our ability to make knowledge coherent)

Kant: Critique of practical reason: Maxims

Subjective principles that do not pass judgement on others (e.g. resolving not to drink)

Kant: Critique of practical reason: Practical laws (imperatives)

Principles that are valid for every person

Kant: Critique of practical reason: 2 Types of Practical laws (imperatives)

Hypothetical imperative: Conditionally valid (e.g. if you want to live long, you must live healthily)




Categorical imperative: Unconditionally valid (e.g. thou shalt not kill)


- Noumenal; the only imperative that is able to justify a universal moral law

Kant: Critique of judgement: Determinant faculty

Determinant faculty: Determinant judgement through which we subsume a particular under a universal principle

Kant: Critique of judgement: Reflective faculty

Reflective faculty: Reflective judgement through which we must find a universal principle into which to place a particular (e.g. the judgement of taste)

Kant: Critique of judgement: 4 a priori propositions for the judgement of taste:

- Disinterestedness: Without motive


- Takes place without concepts: based on feeling not knowledge


- Purposiveness without purpose: While the experience of the beautiful has no purpose, the beautiful is still experienced as “purposive”


- Common sense: Although taste is subjective it is based on the expectation that we all have a common sense

Kant: The Sublime vs. the beautiful

- Beauty as having limited form, sublime as being formless




- Beauty as experienced in peaceful contemplation, sublime as an overwhelming experience




- Beauty as able to be judged based on its purposive elements, sublime as resistant to any judgement because of its formlessness

Kant: Artist's studio

???

Romanticism: 3 Definitions of Romanticism

- Artistic movement associated with a longing for nature, the sublime, imagination, emotionalism




-Intellectual movement philosophical narratives based on the criticism of contemporary enlightenment narratives




- Cultural shift (in the west)

Romanticism: Characteristics

- Reaction against the enlightenment, influenced by the enlightenment


- Nature as antagonistic to a society dominated by rationalism, industrialization


- Oscillation between opposing poles


- Importance of self-determination, authenticity; thus, importance of artistic creation, imagination

Romanticism: Historical roots

- Rooted in german philosophy


- Shift from aristocracies to nation states


-French revolution and the “failure” of the enlightenment

Romanticism: Influence of Kant

- References the gap between pure and practical reason (contrast)


- Kant’s bridge between contrasts only functional as an analogy


- Radicalization of Kants dualism


- Aestheticization of the worldview


- Desire for the absolute

Romanticism: Schiller: Notstat and vernunfstat

Transition during the French revolution from a nature-state (notstat) to theoretical reason (vernunfstat)

Romanticism: Schiller: Theory of play

- Stofftrieb: Material, sensuous drive


- Formtrieb: Moral drive


- Spieltrieb: Aesthetic, play drive; functions as bridge for formtrieb and stofftrieb

Romanticism: Schiller: Aesthetic education

Bildung (aesthetic education) providing spieltrieb and thus helping people reach the formtrieb




Importance of autonomous art (dominated neither by stofftrieb or form tribe)




Purposiveness without purpose: Art must not have the purpose of spieltrieb since then it is propaganda

Romanticism: Schelling: Romantic desire for the absolute

Desire to bridge contrast of nature and human freedom





Romanticism: Schelling's aesthetics

-Role of art to make the ordinary extraordinary (and vice versa)


-Art as creating unity between nature and human freedom

Romanticism: Schelling: Art as a microcosm

- art as world within itself, not a copy of reality




- Interest in an “inwards turn”; inner moral source




-Shift from mimesis to poiesis (expressionism)

Romanticism: Irony

??


- Irony as an ontology, not a stylistic method


- Prevents the absolute, lethargy

Expression theory

Aesthetic philosophy that emphasizes the expressive dimension of art





Expression theory: 2 dimensions of expression theory

- Arousal of emotions in the audience


- Expression of emotions by the artist

Aristotle & Expression theory

Catharsis as purpose of art

Expression theory: Tolstoy's 3 criterion

- 1st Criterion: Art as solely about emotion and intuition


- 2nd Criterion: Democratization of art (Rejection of “elitist art” (e.g. Wagner vs. folk art))


- 3rd Criterion: Art should stir universally human emotions, morally elevate people (e.g. love vs. sexual desire)

Expression theory: 4 Criticisms of Tolstoy

- Underestimates the role of technical skill and intellect


- Assumes a hypnotist-hypnotized like relationship between artist and audience


- Judges art based on moral merit rather than just aesthetic merit


- Use of arbitrary moral judgements, arbitrarily rejects artworks as elitist

Expression theory: Croce’s Philosophy of history

Uniqueness: he only important part of history is its uniqueness




Intuition: The immediate understanding of the uniqueness in an event/character




Presentism: In order to understand an event the viewer must relive the event in their own mind

Expression theory: 3 aesthetic assertions of the Croce-Collingwood theory of art:

- The work of art is located in the artists mind




- The expression of the work need not be externalized in the form of an artwork



-The true work of art is only accessible to the extent that a viewer can re-experience the artists original expression

Expression theory: 5 Criticisms of CC theory

- No reason to assume the true artwork is located in the artists mind


- The art in the artists mind is not formless, but already in a form i.e. language


- Ignores the significance of the medium


- Impossible to fully re-experience the original intuition of the artist


- Gadamer’s hermeneutics: More important to study the effects of an artwork than the original intention of the artist

Formalism

View that only purely artistic standards for assessing art are relevant




Focus only on intrinsic value (i.e. formal artistic aspects), disregards all extrinsic value

Formalism: Hanslick's 5 formalist arguments about music

- No distinction between form and content (music as the least representational art form)


- Music is not expression (does not express specific feelings since the emotions stirred are different to each listener)


- Music is not imitation (Although it may be meant to represent something, the music cannot be necessarily tied to that particular thing)


- Musical language is autonomous; relies on nothing but its own forms and properties


- Only instrumental music can embody the the true language of music

Formalism: Criticism of Hanslick

- Music as more autonomous than other arts is not necessarily true


- Underestimates the importance of symbolism in art


- Does not explain how and why music can be expressive

Formalism: Bell & Fry: Significant form

Significant form: The aspect in art that arouses an universal emotional experience (since this feeling that art arouses is always similar it must be due to the nature of art)




Only “significant form” should be considered the essence of art



Formalism: 3 Criticisms of Bell & Fry

- Circular reasoning; can never prove that an artwork has/doesn’t have significant form


- Ignores the importance of what is represented in the painting


- Ignores the importance of the emotional and intellectual context of an artwork

Synthesis of Form and Expression: Nietzsche

- Considered art from the artist’s point of view




- Importance of the state of mind accompanying the creation of art




- Viewed process of creation as based in the unconscious soul rather than a conscious idea process

Synthesis of Form and Expression: Schopenhauer: The world of representation and will

The world as representation: Based on Kant, through a priori laws (e.g. space, time, causality) we are able to construct a representation of the world




The world as will: Irrational power of nature arising from the “will to live” which creates the world

Synthesis of Form and Expression: Schopenhauer: Art and the world of representation and will

Art as a form of meditation that allows us to transcend our irrational will




Hierarchy in the arts: Music as the highest art form, since it is not a direct copy of the phenomenon but a direct copy of the will (thus, architecture and visual arts as lower forms)

Synthesis of Form and Expression: Nietzsche: 2 artistic drives

Dionysian: Unstructured passion, primal, emotion; “ecstatic rapture”, The world of the willFormless




Apollonian: Form-giving, The world of representation (allows the artist to mold the emotions of the Dionysian)

Synthesis of Form and Expression: Nietzsche: Greek Tragedy



Greek tragedy as synthesis of Apollonian (form) and Dionysian (emotion)




Tragedy as an ethical, political learning game; transforms the suffering into an aesthetic phenomenon




Distinctive of tragedy:Characters take responsibility to act against their fate; try to domesticate fatality




Tragedy as mirror of society, reflecting the:


- Transition from aristocracy to democracy


- Instability of the Athenian democracy


- Transition from Mythos to Logos